Bach: Concerto Italiens [Italian Concertos] (and other concertos for solo piano)

There was a time when notions of copyright did not exist. To reuse other people's music without owing them anything was more than just the norm: it was a form of homage. There was a time when, with a view to acquiring new skills, Bach transcribed for organ or harpsichord concertos by Vivaldi, Torelli and the Marcello brothers; and these fine transcriptions led directly to one of his own masterpieces, the Italian Concerto. Paradoxically, this exercise was much later to be seen as betrayal, sacrilege, a crime against the integrity of the work. A plague on censors! Today's musicians know that to perform Bach on the piano is not to betray him - on the contrary. Alexandre Tharaud has already successfully explored the harpsichord suites of Rameau on a Steinway; here, when he revisits the transpositions of the great Johann Sebastian Bach on the piano, it is enough to make us quite giddy with pleasure!