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Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I

Aeolus

$30.99 Apr 17, 2026

Finnish harpsichordist Aapo Häkkinen plays Book I of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier on the Christian Vater harpsichord preserved in Nuremberg and on an equally historic clavichord. Two of the 24 pairs of Preludes and Fugues are even presented in an alternative instrumentation on the historic North German organ of Backemoor. Aapo Häkkinen, not least through his acclaimed AEOLUS recordings of Bach's harpsichord concertos, continues to reveal the richness and expressive possibilities of these masterpieces.

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Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I
Aeolus Apr 2026
CD
$30.99

Organ Encyclopedia - Dupré: Works For Organ Vol 8 / Engels
Naxos Aug 1999
CD
$19.99

BACH J.S.: 48 PRELUDES & FUGUES - LIVE IN
PARNASSUS May 2016
DVD
$23.99

Bach, J.S.: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

Metier

$19.99 Jan 01, 2000

Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" - the 48 Preludes and Fugues, 2 sets in each major and minor key, is one of the cornerstones of the baroque keyboard repertoire. Diana Boyle presents an exceptional account of the second set of 24 pieces, played on a modern Grotrian-Steinweg piano. Her approach to performing this repertoire on a modern piano is astonishing and exciting, bringing the complexity of Bach's writing to the fore.

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Bach, J.S.: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2
Metier Jan 2000
CD
$19.99

J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 - No. 22 Bb mino

Nimbus

Sheet Music

$7.99 Oct 06, 2023

The main purpose of this edition is to assist those "desirous of learning" with some suggestions and information that might be helpful in the process of learning, understanding and performing the works of Bach. These suggestions should not be taken as a "must" to follow, but are simply meant to assist in the comprehension and practical execution of The Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC) and to encourage further exploration. This Edition is available in 2 Books, or as 48 separate 'Preludes and Fugues' scores.

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J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 - No. 22 Bb mino
Nimbus Oct 2023
Sheet Music
$7.99

Mendelssohn: Piano Works Vol 5 / Benjamin Frith
Naxos Apr 1999
CD
$19.99

Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier Book 2 / Luc Beausejour

Naxos

$14.99 ~~$29.99~~ Save 50% Jan 13, 2015

When Luc Beauséjour recorded Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier [8.557625–26] he was hailed by International Piano for ‘his instinct for discovering exactly the right tempo; his playing is so natural’. He turns now to Book II of the Preludes and Fugues in all twenty-four keys, assembled for publication in 1742. A number of the pieces survive in earlier versions from previous decades, which Bach revised or transposed. Together with Book I, this constitutes one of the pinnacles of Western music.

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Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier Book 2 / Luc Beausejour
Naxos Jan 2015
CD
~~$29.99~~ $14.99

Olli Mustonen: The RCA Recordings

Sony Masterworks

$11.48 ~~$22.98~~ Save 50% Jan 05, 2018

Finnish pianist-composer Olli Mustonen’s recordings of Preludes and Fugues by Bach and Shostakovich were released in 1999 and 2004. “Perhaps only an artist as innovative and convincing as Mustonen could have made it work as well as it does,” wrote BBC Music Magazine of the first volume. Of the second, Gramophone wrote that “one cannot deny either the brilliance or imagination of his playing”. Mustonen boldly alternates between the composers’ works: Andrew McGregor wrote for the BBC that “it becomes harder to hear where Bach ends and Shostakovich begins, and less important to separate them … I recommend it without hesitation or reservation.” Mustonen’s 1998 recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations “contains moments of absolutely spellbinding playing, with textures of wonderful clarity and a deeply imaginative approach to the music,” said BBC Music Magazine of an interpretation still considered iconoclastic today. It is reissued here along with a second disc of Beethoven featuring works including the E major sonata op. 109.

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Olli Mustonen: The RCA Recordings
Sony Masterworks Jan 2018
CD
~~$22.98~~ $11.48

Burge: 24 Preludes

Centrediscs CMC

$18.99 Nov 01, 2019

John Burge (b. 1961, Dryden, Ontario) is a Canadian composer who has been teaching at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario since 1987. He has written a large body of vocal, chamber, and orchestral compositions, and received the 2009 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Some critics have likened his compositional style to that of Benjamin Britten and Maxwell Davies. Philip Chiu is acclaimed for his brilliant pianism, sensitive listening, and a stage presence that eschews the hermit-pianist image in favour of openness, authenticity, and connection with audiences. Inaugural winner of the Mecenat Musica Prix Goyer, Chiu has become one of Canada's leading musicians through his infectious love of music and his passion for creation and communication. Given the number of precedents in the world of Classical music, it is fair to state that there is a long traditional of composing a set of Twenty-Four Preludes for solo piano. John Burge's preludes draw their primary influence from Chopin's Opus 28 set in that Burge also composes one prelude in each major and minor key, employing the exact same ordering of keys used by Chopin. While Chopin was writing music in the highly chromaticized harmonic language of the early 19th century, in 2015, the year that Burge completed his set, the concept of tonality has undergone so many developments since Chopin's time that there are now whole schools of musical techniques that produce music that is quite atonal. As an all-governing principle for his set of preludes though, Burge made it a personal requirement that each prelude had to embrace it's tonic key in a decisively audible fashion.

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Burge: 24 Preludes
Centrediscs CMC Nov 2019
CD
$18.99

Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier / Papastefanou

First Hand Records

$24.98 ~~$49.99~~ Save 50% Aug 10, 2018

One of the greatest achievements in musical composition history, The Well-Tempered Clavier of Johann Sebastian Bach is a collection of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. It seem both books, composed two decades apart, were written primarily for educative personal and private use in the home – probably to be played on the intimate clavichord. One of the most famous works written for the keyboard, The Well-Tempered Clavier is simply enjoyable music of the highest craftsmanship. Alexandra Papstefanou graduated from Athens Conservatoire, where she studied piano under Aliki Vatikioti. She followed her studies with Olga Zhukova at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, with Peter Solymos, at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and, on a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation, at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, USA, with the highly influential teacher György Sebok. She has also taken lessons from Alfred Brendel. Papastefanou was a finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland and received the Liebstoeckl and Fazioli Prizes at the International Geneva Competition, as well as the Spyros Motsenigos Prize from the Academy of Athens. She has performed all of Bach’s keyboard works and, in a series of recitals, has presented his complete Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, The Art of Fugue, and The Musical Offering as well as his keyboard concertos.

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Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier / Papastefanou
First Hand Records Aug 2018
CD
~~$49.99~~ $24.98

Mendelssohn: Music For Piano For 2 And 4 Hands/ Mi-joo Lee, Klaus Hellwig

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Sep 01, 2010

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Technically flawless and very sensitively performed.

Felix Mendelssohn is recognised for helping revive the reputation of J.S. Bach, but it was his mother who encouraged Felix and his sister Fanny to play Bach. This early keyboard exploration of Bach’s forms and counterpoint is no doubt responsible for the many fugues and preludes in Mendelssohn’s output, and the Sechs Präludien und Fugen op. 35 are prime examples. The shapes of the fugue themes in particular echo Bach’s model, and it is impossible to hear the opening of the A flat major fugue, for instance, without thinking of the Well Tempered Clavier. Mendelssohn’s song-like flow and love of chorales are all part of the mix, and the pieces are by no means a pale imitation of Bach. Not conceived as a cycle, these preludes & fugues nevertheless traverse a wide range of approaches and styles, creating a nicely contrasting set. The adaptation of Mendelssohn’s idiom into ‘antique’ styles of polyphony results in the kind of intensification of ideas within a fugue which makes for a variation-form feel and grand climaxes. Mendelssohn’s skill however maintains a sincere clarity, and even where all the stops are pulled out one can sense a lack of pomposity and bombast – ably assisted of course by the fine playing of Mi-Joo Lee. Schumann was famously inspired to state that Mendelssohn’s Preludes & Fugues were “birches, where Bach once placed such mighty oaks...” and “compositions born of the spirit and executed in poetic style.”

The playing of piano duets was a strong element of music making in households at this time, and the Mendelssohn residence was no exception. Arrangements of the latest symphonic or operatic hits would inevitably have arrangements made, and be made widely popular through domestic use. The problem with Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny is that they had far too much skill and fun, and would play through all kinds of repertoire without needing to go through all the tedious effort of writing down the notes. As a result there is very little of Mendelssohn’s own work in this genre which reaches us. The Ouvertüre zum Sommernachtstraum was eventually arranged for piano duet in a simplified but still highly virtuosic form - the one developed by Felix and Fanny over numerous performances done from the score must have been remarkable indeed. This is always a refreshingly inspired piece, and comes across with plenty of colour and sparkle from the duet on this recording.

The Andante con Variazioni op. 83a is an arrangement and expansion of the original Op.83 version for two hands, made in haste by Mendelssohn for one of Fanny’s ‘Sonntagsmusiken’ concerts. The original five variations received an additional three movements, and the whole given plenty of extra technical fireworks. The Andante und Allegro assai vivace op. 92 was especially written for and appeared on the 1841 Leipzig Gewandhaus programme played by Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, the same concert at which Schumann’s first symphony was premiered. There is a certain amount of editorial interest with this piece, with the first published engraving being derived from an incomplete draft and not the final copy, which was first published only in 1994. The best known element is the Allegro, which is here preceded with the more recently added Andante introduction. Of all the pieces here this is the most remarkable in terms of its musical content – the virtuoso elements taking hold of the textural content of the work in ways which can take you quite by surprise, almost approaching the kinds of thing I’ve become more used to hearing in MDG’s ‘Player Piano’ series.

Mi-Joo Lee has received justified plaudits for her previous recordings of Schumann and Saint-Saëns on the MDG label, and fans will have plenty to entertain them with this Mendelssohn disc. The duet pieces with Klaus Hellwig are technically flawless and very sensitively performed in true chamber music style, and there are few enough recordings of this repertoire around to make this a very welcome top-flight addition to the catalogue. There is a bit of lower mid-range bloom in the piano sound, but any mild sponginess snaps more into focus with SACD decoding. I have no doubt MDG’s 2+2+2 setup would bring even more improvements, but in essence the sound is very good all round, with plenty of depth and colour.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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Mendelssohn: Music For Piano For 2 And 4 Hands/ Mi-joo Lee, Klaus Hellwig
MDG Sep 2010
SACD
$24.99

Chopin: Preludes
Naxos Sep 1999
CD
$19.99

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier

Alpha

$40.99 Mar 25, 2014

"• Recorded on four different organs, J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, 48 Préludes and Fugues equally divided into two books, is a veritable manifesto of the art of the keyboard and a founding work of all future keyboard literature. • Organist Frédéric Desenclos clearly reveals the architecture of these gems of imagination and compositional skill, originally composed for harpsichord. • Mr. Desenclos was a student of famed French organists Gaston Litaize and Andre Isoir. • Complete on 4 CD's; digibox."

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Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier
Alpha Mar 2014
CD
$40.99

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

Alpha

$20.99 Mar 22, 2019

Two years after releasing her album dedicated to Book I of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Céline Frisch now presents the second volume of this musical landmark. Bach compiled Book II in 1744, twenty-two years after Book I. It took until 1801 for both volumes to be printed: from then until the present day they have inspired countless composers. After a series of recordings with the Ensemble Zimmermann she helped to found, Céline Frisch returns to the harpsichord recital, for a programme of this, her very favourite music. Through these preludes and fugues, she reminds us that far from being technical exercises, the Well- Tempered Clavier is a work of pure pleasure and constant renewed discovery. As Robert Schumann declared: 'You should frequently play the fugues of the great masters, particularly those of J.S. Bach. Make the Well-Tempered Clavier your daily bread.'

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Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2
Alpha Mar 2019
CD
$20.99

Bach: Organ Chorales, Etc / Wolfgang Rübsam
Naxos Jul 1996
CD
$19.99

WEDDING MARCH FUNERAL MARCH

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Jan 18, 2019

A total of four organs group themselves around the listener in three dimensions in St. Michael's Church in Hamburg, and all four instruments are spectacularly employed on this Super Audio album. Church music director Christoph Schoener has designed a very special program for the organs in his workplace: music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy that has never been heard before in just this way. Schoener pulls all the stops on the central console and covers a spectrum ranging from the complete late-romantic forces of the entire organ system to the filigree murmuring of individual tone colors. A special treat: a solo for the echo organ installed high above in the ceiling sphere! The Six Preludes and Fugues op. 35 forming the focus here, though originally intended for the piano, create a phenomenal impression on the massive St. Michael's organ in this arrangement by Christoph Bossert. After all, it was Mendelssohn, who after the organ's Viennese classical "dry spell," supported the rehabilitation of this instrument. Accordingly, numerous piano pieces by him are ideally suited for transfers into the organ's much mightier sound dimension. Things get underway with the so very famous "Wedding March" from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Even if many a bride and groom have entered many a church to this music, on this recording it is as if the listener could reach out and embrace the bride. Whether a "Song Without Words," a lovingly supplied fragment, or a "Theme with Variations," this Mendelssohn recording is a perfect complement to the Bach, Brahms, and Reger editions with which Christoph Schoener has brought delight to the organ world and beyond.

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WEDDING MARCH FUNERAL MARCH
MDG Jan 2019
SACD
$24.99

Bach: Praeludien und Fugen / Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naïve Sep 2015
CD
$18.99

Franck: Symphony In D, Etc / Neuhold, Flanders Philharmonic
Naxos Apr 1989
CD
$19.99

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Bach: Trio Sonatas Bwv 528-530, Etc / Wolfgang Rübsam
Naxos Aug 1993
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Bach: The Gamut from A to G / Plutz

Affetto Records

$18.99 Jun 16, 2023

J. S. Bach’s Preludes / Toccatas / Fantasias & Fugues for organ are among the peak artistic achievements of the human race. The combination of harmonic and melodic beauty, visceral force, and intellectual ingenuity is unparalleled by any other solo instrument’s repertoire. Organist Eric Plutz realized that a compelling single program of these masterpieces could be formed by performing them in diatonic order – one for each key: A, B, C etc. In Western music that sequence is known as ‘The Gamut,’ a term that came to mean a "complete range.’ This program, therefore, aligns with Bach’s own deep sense for order while traversing the complete range of Bach’s vision, from tenderest melancholy to the depths of despair, from bold challenge to ecstatic victory. These peaks and valleys are nobly served by the dazzling colors of the Princeton University organ as well as the full historic and acoustic resonance of the Princeton University Chapel itself (the third largest college chapel in the world).

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Bach: The Gamut from A to G / Plutz
Affetto Records Jun 2023
CD
$18.99

Bernstein Century - Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue & Riffs, Etc

Sony Masterworks

$17.99 May 30, 2012

There's revealing diversity in these pre-'West Side Story' works of Bernstein, as well as harbingers of that landmark musical and film. Among them is the dramatic horn work in the title composition, which also certifies the classical chops and sureness in syncopation of jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The modernist flurries of the saxophone arrangements are evocative of the much later work by the avant-garde ROVA ensemble.
The 'Fancy Free' ballet appears along with the "Three Dance Episodes" from 'On the Town,' a 1944 show envisioned by Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins as an extension of 'Fancy Free.' The ballet (reproduced here from a monaural recording) presents a remarkable array of emotional dramas - some with Coplandesque bravado, some with Latin touches of tango and fandango, some with the sassy strut which is so Manhattan. The dances showcase Bernstein's facility at reusing and combining themes, some taken from 'On the Town's' most famous number, "New York, New York" (not to be confused with the John Kander-Fred Ebb song of the same name sung by Liza Minelli in the 1977 film "New York, New York"). The composer conducts with vigor.
By contrast, the 'Serenade' lacks the expected Bernstein lyricism and clear, tight structure, but is interesting in concept and shows off the dynamic palate and authority of violinist Zino Francescatti.

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Bernstein Century - Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue & Riffs, Etc
Sony Masterworks May 2012
CD
$17.99

Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 4 / Masaaki Suzuki

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Aug 04, 2023

This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.

The fourth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach works for organ series features one of the most important surviving instruments of Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them, remaining faithful to the originals, making it an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound ideas of the Leipzig Thomaskantor.

Suzuki now takes up the Orgel-Büchlein (literally, ‘little organ book’), a collection of 45 short chorale preludes on melodies from the Lutheran hymn book, a project that came into being in connection with Bach’s appointment as organist and chamber musician at the Duke’s court in Weimar in 1708. Presenting chorales for different periods of the church year, this collection serves as a general guide to text-based composition focusing on specific word-sound relationships and content-specific musical expression. Two Preludes and Fugues complete the first volume dedicated to the Orgel-Büchlein, illustrating the principle of variety and structure historically practised by concert organists in order to demonstrate the tone colours and expressive possibilities of their instrument.

REVIEW:

The great Masaaki Suzuki’s traversal of Bach’s keyboard music is well underway, and several attractions have become clear. In general, he is a bit less concerned with a pearly surface and a bit more with direct expression. In works for organ, he has shown a willingness to delve into period instruments, and the one here is a real find. Suzuki is willing to take a bit of time to bring out its colors; there is nothing too radical, but there are subtle adjustments to the tempo throughout that define the profile of each little ornamented chorale, and all the performances are vivid. This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

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Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 4 / Masaaki Suzuki
BIS Aug 2023
SACD
$21.99

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Navona

$16.99 Aug 15, 2025

Christopher O'Riley's THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER BOOK II continues the pianist's exploration of Bach's masterpiece. A true expedition into the second set's finest of details, O'Riley delves beyond the notes themselves and into the spaces between them, sifting through the silence for every last possibility of rhythmic flexibility and potential for expression. With preludes and fugues more intricate and complex than those of the first, the second book provides an even richer opportunity for the discovery of texture, articulation, and hidden meaning within the music.

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The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II
Navona Aug 2025
CD
$16.99

Polyphonic Dialogues - Shostakovich, Shchedrin / Joachim Kwetzinsky

SACD

$24.99 Apr 27, 2010

When Shostakovich first performed his Preludes and Fugues for piano, his younger colleague Rodion Shchedrin got the idea to compose his own set. Whereas Shostakovich's have gained in esteem and popularity over the past three decades, Shchedrin's are far less known in the West, and undeservedly so. Both composers write for the keyboard with idiomatic ease and textural economy, share a common humorous streak, and never repeat themselves over the course of these works. Shchedrin is extroverted and optimistic when Shostakovich is inward and sardonic, but the opposite sometimes holds true. In any case, pianist Joachim Kwetzinsky has interweaved excerpts from both cycles into a brilliantly curated program. More importantly, he plays like a young god.

Notice the rock-steady yet flexible control with which he articulates the Shchedrin E-flat minor fugue's complex rhythmic strands, or the bouquet of tone colors arising from the Shostakovich A major fugue's arpeggiated textures. The ricocheting octaves and rapid chords in Shchedrin's Basso Ostinato positively sting, while, by contrast, the Shostakovich D major prelude's right-hand rolled chords and left-hand countermelody effortlessly converse in perfect rhythm, totally oblivious to the music's bar lines. The exceptionally clean and clear multi-channel engineering is all one could wish for. One of 2010's most stimulating piano releases--don't miss it!

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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Polyphonic Dialogues - Shostakovich, Shchedrin / Joachim Kwetzinsky
2L Apr 2010
SACD
$24.99

Bach: Works for Harpsichord / Skowroneck

Tyxart

$20.99 May 22, 2020

J.S. Bach's 6 English Suites (BWV 806-811) were written around 1715 during Bach's time at the court in Weimar (1708-1717). In spite of their title, most of the English suites begin with a large-scale polyphonic Prelude in the style of the Italian concerto grosso, whereas most of the dance movements are written in the French manner. The Prelude of the sixth suite (BWV 811) featured on this album is preceded by a slow introduction, which gives the piece some extra length and weightiness. The Gigue of this suite is particularly challenging because of its frequent organ points that are sustained by long trills, to be played against other voices in the same hand. Technically, this texture can be seen as a precursor of the so-called "Beethoven trill". The Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major (BWV 998), written about twenty years after the English Suites, were conceived for "lute or harpsichord". Written in the soothing key of E-flat major, these pieces evoke a pastoral mood. The final selection on this recording (Suite) is Gustav Leonhardt 's (1928-2012) G minor arrangement of the second Violin Partita in D minor (BWV 1004). This transposed version makes exquisite use of the harpsichord's sonoraus potential. The famous Ciaccona, well known from a number of famous transcriptions for piano, concludes this suite. The harpsichord played on this recording was made in 1976 by Martin Skowroneck (1926-2014) after an original two-manual harpsichord from 1728 by Christian Zell. The instrument's plectra are made of bird's quill.

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Bach: Works for Harpsichord / Skowroneck
Tyxart May 2020
CD
$20.99