This is the fifth in what will eventually be an unprecedented 14-volume survey of Bach's keyboard music by Benjamin Alard, with each volume containing multiple CDs in the physical version. This is a lot of Bach, and some may surmise that the project is aimed at libraries and specialists rather than ordinary listeners, an impression reinforced by the snooty tone taken in the notes here toward the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, but there's much here to interest the general listener. Alard's project is innovative not ...
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This is the fifth in what will eventually be an unprecedented 14-volume survey of Bach's keyboard music by Benjamin Alard, with each volume containing multiple CDs in the physical version. This is a lot of Bach, and some may surmise that the project is aimed at libraries and specialists rather than ordinary listeners, an impression reinforced by the snooty tone taken in the notes here toward the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, but there's much here to interest the general listener. Alard's project is innovative not just in its completeness but in his imaginative choice of instruments. Here, he offers one CD of organ music, one of pedal harpsichord, and one of clavichord. The performances involved might not match what one would find in a list of Bach's works by instrument, but that is Alard's point; he is suggesting that Bach's music was not so tied to specific instruments as later music would be. This yields all kinds of insights. Consider the clavichord, not terribly often heard on recordings....
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