Johann Sebastian Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Clavier (24Bit)

Schiff will explore those broadened horizons in his “Bach Project,” which includes performances of Bach’s music across North America from October 2012 to November 2013. The tour begins with The Well-Tempered Clavier and will go on to include the French Suites, English Suites, Partitas and Goldberg Variations, as well as keyboard concertos with the San Francisco Symphony and New York Philharmonic. Schiff announced his “Bach Project” by joining author Stuart Isacoff (Temperament and A Natural History of the Piano) at Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse in New York City to discuss Bach in front of an audience. The discussion led to a question about what Schiff heard in his early Bach discs that he strove to improve upon in his ECM recordings. “There were touches of sentimentality that I didn’t consider sentimental at the time – and I don’t like sentimentality,” he said. “Perhaps you become more secure with age – you don’t feel the need to impress. You know this is a great piece of music that can speak for itself.”

András Schiff, born in Budapest in 1953, puts a strong focus on cyclic performances of the important piano works by the masters from Bach to Bártok. His wide-ranging discography on ECM includes works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Janáček, among many others. One of Schiff's most ambitious projects to date, the complete Beethoven sonata cycle was performed in 20 major musical centers worldwide and recorded for ECM in concert at the Zürich Tonhalle. In 1999, Schiff created his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, which consists of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends. In addition to working annually with this orchestra, he conducts London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Recorded August 2011

ECM New Series 2270-73