This box set is part six of a unique project. Benjamin Alard is almost certainly the first to record all of Bach's keyboard works roughly chronologically on organ, harpsichord and clavichord. Because of that chronological order, the listener had to put up with a lot of juvenile works in the first editions, combined with music from Bach's examples. With volume six, that is far behind us. Volume 6
… covers the period when Bach took office as Kapellmeister of Köthen. Among the highlights is the first book of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, with preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys. Alard knows how to present all these preludes and fugues with flair, deviating, incidentally, from the standard (chromatic) order. We hear no organ in volume six. The pieces from the keyboard book of Bach's eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann are played on a domestic clavichord. (HJ)more