Album: Roger Woodward, Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Celestial Harmonies)

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

There has been almost as much of a glut of Well-Tempered Claviers recently as commemorative Chopin editions, including interpretations from Daniel Barenboim and Maurizio Pollini; but this 5CD set of both Books I and II by Roger Woodward may well be the most significant since Glenn Gould's revolutionary completion of the sequence.

The size of the set suggests unusually slow tempi, but Woodward is simply being scrupulously attendant to the demands of the music. Indeed, his thorough sleevenote In Search Of A Performance Practice, analysing the different approaches employed on various cembali, clavichords, organs, etc, may constitute the last word on this subject, as too may his performance. Remarkable.

Download this The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I & II