Richard Egarr - Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869 (Richard Egarr) (2007)

Tracklist

CD1
01. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846
02. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846
03. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 847
04. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 847
05. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848
06. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848
07. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849
08. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849
09. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 5 in D Major, BWV 850
10. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 5 in D Major, BWV 850
11. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 6 in D Minor, BWV 851
12. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 6 in D Minor, BWV 851
13. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 7 in E-Flat Major, BWV 852
14. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 7 in E-Flat Major, BWV 852
15. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 8 in D-Sharp Minor, BWV 853
16. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 8 in D-Sharp Minor, BWV 853
17. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 9 in E Major, BWV 854
18. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 9 in E Major, BWV 854
19. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 10 in E Minor, BWV 855
20. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 10 in E Minor, BWV 855
21. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 11 in F Major, BWV 856
22. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 11 in F Major, BWV 856
23. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 12 in F Minor, BWV 857
24. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 12 in F Minor, BWV 857

CD2
01. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 13 in F-Sharp Major, BWV 858
02. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 13 in F-Sharp Major, BWV 858
03. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 14 in F-Sharp Minor, BWV 859
04. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 14 in F-Sharp Minor, BWV 859
05. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860
06. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860
07. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 16 in G Minor, BWV 861
08. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 16 in G Minor, BWV 861
09. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 17 in A-Flat Major, BWV 862
10. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 17 in A-Flat Major, BWV 862
11. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 18 in G-Sharp Minor, BWV 863
12. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 18 in G-Sharp Minor, BWV 863
13. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 19 in A Major, BWV 864
14. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 19 in A Major, BWV 864
15. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 20 in A Minor, BWV 865
16. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 20 in A Minor, BWV 865
17. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 21 in B-Flat Major, BWV 866
18. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 21 in B-Flat Major, BWV 866
19. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 22 in B-Flat Minor, BWV 867
20. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 22 in B-Flat Minor, BWV 867
21. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 23 in B Major, BWV 868
22. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 23 in B Major, BWV 868
23. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 24 in B Minor, BWV 869
24. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Fugue No. 24 in B Minor, BWV 869

The casual buyer might stumble on this two-disc set and assume, from the presence of the well-worn Book One of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and from the reliable imprint of the Harmonia Mundi USA label, that this was a safe, mainstream choice for this central Bach repertory item. It is anything but. The good news is that some online sampling will help listeners determine whether Egarr's approach is to their liking. The first thing to know about this performance is that Egarr subscribes to a currently controversial theory that by "well-tempered" Bach did not mean "equal-tempered" but intended a tuning encoded in the decorative figures with which he adorned the title page of the work. Leaving aside the pros and cons of this approach, there are two things to note. First, Egarr's pretense at finding it "amazing" that any reference book author could still believe the traditional view that Bach wrote the work as a demonstration of equal temperamnet is disingenuous. Second, and the more important for the casual listener, is the musical result of this tuning -- it tends to intensify and individualize the character of each key, whereas equal temperament tends to flatten out the differences. The major keys turn out brighter, the minor keys, for the most part, murkier. In Egarr's view, the whole cycle is very much a unit, to be played through rather than excerpted, and one that embodies a dramatic sequence of events. His playing emphasizes the differences among the individual pieces, principally through rhythms that sometimes seem to be shifting constantly. This can be disconcerting in the fugues -- sample a few of the fugues in minor keys to see what you think of the effect. On the whole, Egarr's playing is something like that of the old-school pianists whose Romantic interpretations of this work were for many years the only ones you could get, but the Romantic moves have been redeployed in service of a particular theory about what constitutes authentic perforomance. It's anything but mainstream, but there will certainly exist listeners attuned to Egarr's vision of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and they will greet this recording with excitement. The sound is appropriately dramatic, and the Dutch harpsichord copy used is well suited to the realization of Egarr's aims.

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