CD 1:
No. 1 in C major, BWV 870 [Version B]
No. 2 in C minor, BWV 871 [Version A]
No. 3 in C sharp major, BWV 872 [Version B]
No. 4 in C sharp minor, BWV 873 [Version B]
No. 5 in D major, BWV 874 [Version A]
No. 6 in D minor, BWV 875 [Version A]
No. 7 in E flat major, BWV 876 [Version B]
No. 8 in D sharp minor, BWV 877 [Version A]
No. 9 in E major, BWV 878 [Version A]
No. 10 in E minor, BWV 879 [Version B]
No. 11 in F major, BWV 880 [Version A]
No. 12 in F minor, BWV 881 [Version B]

CD 2:
No. 13 in F sharp major, BWV 882 [Version A]
No. 14 in F sharp minor, BWV 883 [Version A]
No. 15 in G major, BWV 884 [Version A]
No. 16 in G minor, BWV 885 [Version A]
No. 17 in A flat major, BWV 886 [Version B]
No. 18 in G sharp minor, BWV 887 [Version A]
No. 19 in A major, BWV 888 [Version A]
No. 20 in A minor, BWV 889 [Version B]
No. 21 in B flat major, BWV 890 [Version A]
No. 22 in B flat minor, BWV 891 [Version A]
No. 23 in B major, BWV 892 [Version A]
No. 24 in B minor, BWV 893 [Version A]

Version A - after the original manuscript, London (1742)
Version B - after the tradition by Johann Christoph Altnichols (1744)

Das Wohltemperirte Clavier, a collection of preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys completed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1722, was clearly modelled along the lines of Ariadne Musica by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1662-1746, Kapellmeister in Baden from 1715 to 1746) – an organ music anthology published for the first time in 1702 and probably known by Bach in its second 1715 edition. Bach took Fischer’s original layout of 20 keys and expanded it to a total of 24, thereby creating the first self-contained collection of music written for the entire corpus of existing keys.

Bach, who, on the handwritten title page of the beautiful copy now preserved in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (Mus. Ms. P 415), signed as Hochf. Anhalt-Cöthenischen Capel-Meistern und Directore derer Cammer Musiquen, clearly indicated his purpose in composing this incomparable collection: “for the profit of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.”

In recent years a clearer picture has emerged of Bach’s instrumentarium, and one can infer that in the last ten years of his life he had a Silbermann fortepiano at his disposal. By then he regarded it as a valid alternative to the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the Lautenwerck, which, taken together, embodied the generic term Clavier. Silbermann, for his part, relied on Bach’s assistance as Cantor to help him sell his valuable instruments (a fortepiano cost as much as a Capellmeister’s annual salary!), and he was entirely indebted to Bartolomeo Cristofori for the design of his fortepiano mechanism, which he later applied to the robust makeup of harpsichords of late German build.

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Recording: March 2017, Santuario della Beata Vergine Maria del Monte Carmelo (Colletto, Roletto, Pinerolo), Turin, Italy. Instrument: Copy by Kerstin Schwarz of the fortepiano built by Gottfried Silbermann in 1749.