Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

Album information

A VISIONARY INTERPRETATION OF A BAROQUE MASTERPIECE

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, one of today’s most visionary pianists, presents the second book of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, a cornerstone of the piano repertoire. Following his acclaimed interpretation of Book I (released on Deutsche Grammophonin 2014), Aimard brings his signature clarity, insight, and depth to this second collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues, exploring Bach’s extraordinary harmonic and contrapuntal imagination. With a lifelong dedication to both early and contemporary music, Aimard approaches the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II not merely as a historical masterpiece but as a vibrant and endlessly inventive work. His performance highlights Bach’s ability to blend expressive lyricism with intellectual rigor, creating a deeply engaging and illuminating listening experience.

A renowned champion of twentieth-century music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has released multiple acclaimed albums in his exclusive contract with PENTATONE, including Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (2018) and Visions de l’Amen (2022), along with Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata & Eroica Variations (2021). He also joined Tamara Stefanovich in Etudes and Frames (2023), with music by Vassos Nicolaou, recorded Bartók’s Piano Concertos with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen (2023), Schubert: Ländler (2024), and Kurtág: Játékok (2025).

Released physically on 2 standard CDs.

REVIEWS:

RONDO – Five stars

BBC Radio 3 – Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, BWV 872 featured on Record Review

The New York Times: Five Classical Albums You Can Listen To Right Now – “Book II has a surprising amount of chromaticism and forward-looking dissonance — try the D-sharp minor fugue — and those moments show Aimard at the apex of his musicianship: technique and imagination at the service of sheer expressive intensity.”

Ruhr Nachrichten: “Anyone who wants to hear a clear and musically very multifaceted Bach will be veryhappy with this double CD by the Frenchman.”

Financieele Dagblad – profile of Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Concerti – Five stars: “A modern and refreshing perspective on the often-neglected pinnacle of Bach’s keyboard artistry.”

Opus Klassiek: “As for Aimard: you can’t treat the piano like a harpsichord, but you can treat it in its spirit. That’s how it sounds on this excellently accomplished recording, at least.”

Diapason: “Quite the opposite of the magnifying effect that irritated Gaëtan, Aimard thus puts detail into perspective with graphic clarity and draws from its diversity a powerfully organic unity, like a Schenker analysis, twinned with skeletal features.”

BBC Music Magazine – Five stars: “But the pleasures of this CD are manifold, thanks to Aimard’s super-light touch and his subtle deployment of infinitesimal gradations of volume and tempo.”

Luister: “A flawless performance, in which he does full justice to the technical and musical demands. All those preludes and fugues, always linked by key, sound as you would expect them to in this perfect recording.”