Bach: The Complete Works for Keyboard, Vol. 6 "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier"

After five volumes devoted to the early years of J. S. Bach, up to the Weimar period, Benjamin Alard takes an utterly fascinating approach to the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. First he offers the listener an astonishing mental preparation on the clavichord, derived mainly from the Clavier-Büchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann. Then he arranges the preludes and fugues in a new order, and to play his programme he has chosen two instruments for which the word 'extraordinary' is not too strong: here is the moment when the glorious Hass family of instrument builders comes on the scene, in a festival of colours and registrations each more breathtaking than the last.