J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1

For nearly twenty years Luca has been the assistant and continuo player of Jordi Savall and his ensembles Hesperion XXI, Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, giving concerts, from the duo to the large ensemble, all over the world. Concurrently, from 1993 Luca Guglielmi has had a busy international career as a soloist of historical keyboards (harpsichord, organ, clavichord, fortepiano), choir master and leader of various ensembles “with original instruments”. This recording has been made by one the three remaining original harpsichords of the Hamburg harpsichord maker Christian Zell (1732), which shows the Bach WTC in a very special sound. The 1737 harpsichord was a favourite of Gustav Leonhardt to whose memory this volume is dedicated.

Luca Guglielmi: Bach himself did not see the autograph manuscript as a ‘definitive’ version. He kept it as an ‘open manuscript’ on the rack of his harpsichord up to his death, using it as a ‘textbook’ for the lessons he gave to his students, never ceasing to insert a series of corrections, reworkings, improvements, small variants and even performance instructions. Bach’s hands-on approach to his work in progress proves just how modern he actually was and remains. Through a truly ‘holistic vision’ we can embrace artistic parameters inherited from our 18th-century forebears: a profound, venerable legacy that remains unknown to the ones who approach the musical art on ‘scientific’ methods based on calculation and measurement.