Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I

The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) contains 24 preludes and 24 fugues, each piece a personality with its own unique character. A prelude is always followed by a fugue in the same key. With an endless fantasy Bach lets the different voices speak, each for itself yet also in dialogue with and attuned to each other. A perfect technical mastery of the form goes hand in hand with the ability to translate all conceivable human emotions into sound. Heart and head, emotion and intellect, are one. All this justifies the prominent place the work has enjoyed for many years in the Western musical canon. Conductor Hans van Bülow (1830-1894) called it 'the Old Testament

of every pianist'