The famous conductor Hans von Bülow, slightly less famous as a pianist now and nearly forgotten as a composer, remains most present to modern music lovers either as the jilted husband of Cosima von ...

One of the most famous movements from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, this prelude has become a standard piece not only for students but for concert pianists as well. But what's the story behind it ...

Music is such a deeply personal experience, and I hope readers don't mind the ultra-personal approach here. Around 50 years ago, in one of many piano exams, I had to play the first Prelude and Fugue ...

Book 1 was written in 1722 when Bach was a young keyboardist in the German provinces. Book 2 was compiled - in 1742 - while Bach lived in Leipzig, having in the intervening two decades become ...

Christophe Rousset, a remarkable harpsichordist and conductor who occupies a place of high honor among Baroque-music interpreters, scores a triumph with this magisterial reading of one of the ...

Before Bach: Benediction; Prelude No. 3 in C# Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 848; After Bach: Rondo; Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 870; After ...

It's the keyboard work that has lasted through the centuries - Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is the aspiring pianist's go-to text. French pianist Hélène Grimaud, showing off the nimble fingerwork in ...

Boyd Tonkin tried to answer that question this time last year, when Schiff gave his first late-night Bach marathon at the Proms, and I can only echo his amazement when it comes to the second ...

I've just ended a year of playing Bach, and it was a no-nonsense deal. Like going hunting with your father-in-law. Every day started with a shouting match in my head. Stop! Intruder! Call the keyboard ...