For this listener at least, Anderszewski’s interpretations and juxtapositions have a compelling inevitability; but the other reason for the recording’s success lies in his pianism. Anderszewski’s flexible, responsive touch and his often slowish tempos allow a subtle suggestiveness..The whole set is beautiful from start to finish.

Anderszewski here poses a most intriguing question: what happens when you take a group of 12 Preludes and Fugues from Book 2 of the ‘48’ and intermingle them? The result...is less of a box of Quality Street to be consumed slumped on the sofa and more of an invitation to a cocktail party of great sophistication. Anderszewski says in the note that he perceives them as character pieces and indeed the result has the feeling of a Baroque Carnaval.

This is playing of unadorned purity, shorn of all extra-mural attractions in performances that often transcend even the most exalted names. There is none of Gould’s eccentricity or Tureck’s occasional pedantry...He makes you long for more Bach, or indeed any other great composer. A pianist who offers no concessions, who remains entirely himself, Anderszewski achieves something of Lipatti’s level of exaltation.