Help
Skip to main content

JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I

Aaron Pilsan

Awards:

There are myriad good things to say about this album...Pilsan, at only 26 years old, is already a fine communicator of Bach’s rhetoric.

JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I

Aaron Pilsan

Purchase product

2 CDs

$30.75

10+ available: usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Download

From$13.25

Download

Audio formats guide

48 kHz, 24 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$26.75

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$20.00

320 kbps, MP3

$13.25

This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 48 kHz, 24 bit

Awards:

There are myriad good things to say about this album...Pilsan, at only 26 years old, is already a fine communicator of Bach’s rhetoric.

About

Aaron Pilsan is only twenty-five years old, but he already has a busy career to his credit, with a solo album devoted to Beethoven and Schubert - very well received by the critics - and another of duo repertory with the cellist Kian Soltani. A student of Lars Vogt, he has also received guidance from András Schiff - Bach has always been at the centre of their work together. The young Austrian pianist has been fascinated since childhood by The Well-Tempered Clavier, that musical journey on which Bach embarks with us in Book One: from the seemingly simple and joyful triad of the famous Prelude in C major to the final fugue, of a complexity almost worthy of Schoenberg, on a subject that already includes the twelve semitones of the chromatic scale . . . Ever since I became interested in Bach's music, I have never ceased to ask myself how to make the modern grand piano - which has a rich fundamental sound but a reduced volume of harmonics compared to the harpsichord - produce an essentially well-tempered impression on the listener... But for me it was not a question of instrumental history, but of interpretation.

Contents and tracklist

Prelude I in C Major, BWV 846
Track length2:00
Fugue I in C Major, BWV 846
Track length2:00
Prelude II in C Minor, BWV 847
Track length1:31
Fugue II in C Minor, BWV 847
Track length1:39
Prelude III in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848
Track length1:15
Fugue III in C-Sharp Major, BWV 848
Track length2:19
Prelude IV in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849
Track length2:31
Fugue IV in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849
Track length4:07
Prelude V in D Major, BWV 850
Track length1:15
Fugue V in D Major, BWV 850
Track length1:40
Prelude VI in D Minor, BWV 851
Track length1:47
Fugue VI in D Minor, BWV 851
Track length2:15
Prelude VII in E-Flat Major, BWV 852
Track length3:37
Fugue VII in E-Flat Major, BWV 852
Track length1:29
Prelude VIII in E-Flat Minor, BWV 853
Track length3:06
Fugue VIII in D-Sharp Minor, BWV 853
Track length4:31
Prelude IX in E Major, BWV 854
Track length1:16
Fugue IX in E Major, BWV 854
Track length1:03
Prelude X in E Minor, BWV 855
Track length2:01
Fugue X in E Minor, BWV 855
Track length1:10
Prelude XI in F Major, BWV 856
Track length00:58
Fugue XI in F Major, BWV 856
Track length1:16
Prelude XII in F Minor, BWV 857
Track length2:09
Fugue XII in F Minor, BWV 857
Track length4:29
Prelude XIII in F-Sharp Major, BWV 858
Track length1:30
Fugue XIII in F-Sharp Major, BWV 858
Track length1:47
Prelude XIV in F-Sharp Minor, BWV 859
Track length00:56
Fugue XIV in F-Sharp Minor, BWV 859
Track length3:04
Prelude XV in G Major, BWV 860
Track length00:49
Fugue XV in G Major, BWV 860
Track length3:05
Prelude XVI in G Minor, BWV 861
Track length2:08
Fugue XVI in G Minor, BWV 861
Track length1:28
Prelude XVII in A-Flat Major, BWV 862
Track length1:13
Fugue XVII in A-Flat Major, BWV 862
Track length2:31
Prelude XVIII in G-Sharp Minor, BWV 863
Track length1:36
Fugue XVIII in G-Sharp Minor, BWV 863
Track length2:08
Prelude XIX in A Major, BWV 864
Track length1:12
Fugue XIX in A Major, BWV 864
Track length2:15
Prelude XX in A Minor, BWV 865
Track length1:03
Fugue XX in A Minor, BWV 865
Track length4:13
Prelude XXI in B-Flat Major, BWV 866
Track length1:17
Fugue XXI in B-Flat Major, BWV 866
Track length1:52
Prelude XXII in B-Flat Minor, BWV 867
Track length2:55
Fugue XXII in B-Flat Minor, BWV 867
Track length3:01
Prelude XXIII in B Major, BWV 868
Track length00:53
Fugue XXIII in B Major, BWV 868
Track length2:18
Prelude XXIV in B Minor, BWV 869
Track length4:40
Fugue XXIV in B Minor, BWV 869
Track length7:18

Spotlight on this release

Awards and reviews

  • Gramophone Magazine
    July 2026
    Critics' Choice 2021

June 2021

There are myriad good things to say about this album...Pilsan, at only 26 years old, is already a fine communicator of Bach’s rhetoric.
View download progress