Bwv 992

Clearly Philips is not trying to sell this disc because of the works being performed – a fairly miscellaneous collection of Bach's works written or transcribed for the harpsichord – but rather for the performer of the works. But since the performer is Gustav Leonhardt – perhaps the greatest musician of the whole early music movement of the second half of the twentieth century – that is a more than sufficient reason to get this disc.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Walter Gieseking’s Bach interpretations have long been celebrated and are still praised as being modern and contemporary. His legendary 1950 broadcasts, later released on the Heliodor label, included many of Bach’s important works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Partitas and Inventions. For the first time, Deutsche Grammophon presents all these recordings, newly remastered, in one original jackets collection. A 7-CD original-jackets collection, newly remastered presenting all of Walter Gieseking’s 1950 Bach broadcasts for Radio Saarbrücken.

Famed for his subtle shadings and irreproachable technique, Walter Gieseking was one of the most extraordinary pianists of his time.

All of the important interpretations by the “high priestess of Bach” - The basis of all piano music - Incl. “Well-Tempered Clavier”, “Goldberg Variations”, the Partitas, the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, the Capriccio in B flat major, and many more.

Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991), one of the great piano masters, receives an exceptional tribute from the label with which he was most closely associated. This is a beautiful, limited-edition 35-CD box of Kempff’s complete solo repertoire on DG and Decca Classics. It includes the stereo Beethoven sonata cycle, the Schubert sonata cycle, generous anthologies of Bach, Brahms, Liszt, Schubert, and Schumann – plus Chopin and Baroque. There are many rarities, not readily available at present.