Daniil Trifonov (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon · 4838530 · 2 hours 16 minutes
Few pianists make you forget you’re listening to Bach on a modern piano, but Trifonov pulls it off here with a kind of ease that’s genuinely disarming — his way into The Art of Fugue feels less like an intellectual exercise and more like a natural conversation with the music. The programme is built around Bach’s late contrapuntal works alongside some earlier pieces, and Trifonov finds a thread of humanity running through all of it that keeps the two-plus hours feeling intimate rather than monumental. BBC Music Magazine gave it five stars and called it a revelation, and honestly, that’s not overselling it.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — October 2021
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2021
- International Classical Music Awards — 2022 — Nominated – Baroque Instrumental
- BBC Music Magazine — Christmas 2021 — Instrumental Choice
“We don’t normally associate Daniil Trifonov with Bach, so this recording is a revelation…Many pianists radiate effort in their attempts to make intellectual sense of The Art of Fugue: Trifonov’s…”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021,5 out of 5 stars
Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Sophie Gent, Louis Creac’h (violin), Fanny Paccoud (viola), Antoine Touche (cello), Thomas de Pierrefeu (contrabass) & Evolène Kiener (bassoon)
Erato · 9029588846 · 81 minutes
Jean Rondeau brings a restless, conversational energy to these concertos that makes the family resemblance between Johann Sebastian and his sons feel genuinely alive rather than academic. The program itself is the real discovery here — hearing CPE, WF, and JC Bach alongside their father reveals how each son absorbed and then bent the language they grew up with, some pulling toward Sturm und Drang intensity, others drifting into early Classical elegance. Rondeau and his tight-knit ensemble play with the kind of ornamentation and rhythmic freedom that feels totally natural, never like a demonstration of period practice.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — March 2017 — Concerto Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — March 2017 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2017
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2018 — Finalist – Concerto
“This spirited and eloquently ornamented playing serves the music of JS Bach and three of his sons uncommonly well”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2017,5 out of 5 stars
Francesco Corti (harpsichord), Il Pomo d’Oro
Arcana · A573 · 77 minutes
There’s something almost electric about putting Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Georg Benda, and C.P.E. Bach in the same room — three composers who collectively turned the Baroque order inside out and made instability feel like a compositional virtue. Francesco Corti and Il Pomo d’Oro lean right into that restlessness, bringing a tight, punchy energy that never loses its warmth or flexibility. At 77 minutes, it’s a generous stretch of some of the most emotionally unpredictable music of the 18th century, and Gramophone’s suggestion that these performances may be unlikely to be bettered feels entirely believable once you’re inside it.
Awards:
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2025
“The performances are first-rate, perhaps unlikely to be bettered, as we have learned to expect both from Il Pomo d’Oro with their tight, punchy yet sensuously yielding sound, and from Corti,…”
— Gramophone Magazine, February 2025
Ralph Kirkpatrick (clavichord), Wolfgang Rübsam (organ), Simon Preston (organ), Justin Taylor (harpsichord), Kenneth Gilbert (harpsichord)
Deutsche Grammophon · 4835989 · 1 hour 49 minutes
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s little keyboard book is one of those collections that feels genuinely intimate — Bach père assembled it for his eldest son when the boy was just nine, so you’re essentially eavesdropping on a private musical education unfolding in real time. The variety of performers here is part of what makes this set so satisfying, with Kirkpatrick’s clavichord bringing a whispery, almost confessional quality that suits the smaller pieces beautifully, while Taylor and Gilbert on harpsichord give the more ambitious works some real snap and presence. It’s a lovely way to hear how Bach thought about teaching, shaping a young mind through music that was demanding without ever feeling cold.
Chamber Orchestra ‘Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’Hartmut Haenchen
Berlin Classics · 0115012BC · 65 minutes
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach occupies this fascinating, slightly melancholy corner of music history — the oldest son of J.S., arguably the most gifted, and yet somehow the one who never quite found his footing in the world. His orchestral writing has this restless, searching quality to it, more harmonically adventurous than his father in some moments and strangely turbulent for its era. Haenchen and the Chamber Orchestra Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach bring a lean, historically informed energy to these works that lets that emotional volatility breathe without over-dramatizing it.
Ewald Demeyere (harpsichord)
Accent · ACC23157 · 53 minutes
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach occupies this strange, restless corner of the 18th century where his father’s contrapuntal rigor collides head-on with proto-Romantic turbulence, and Demeyere gets that tension completely. His playing has real personality — the fugues feel genuinely argumentative rather than tidy, and the sonatas breathe with an improvisatory quality that suits W.F.’s slightly unpredictable harmonic language. If you’ve ever wondered what Bach’s eldest son actually sounds like on his own terms, this 53-minute disc makes a persuasive case.
Anneke Uittenbosch (harpsichord)
Globe · GLO5011 · 66 minutes
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach occupies this strange, restless corner of musical history — he inherited his father’s contrapuntal genius but kept pushing it somewhere darker and more harmonically unpredictable, and these six keyboard sonatas show exactly that tension at work. Anneke Uittenbosch leans into the music’s edginess rather than smoothing it over, letting the sudden harmonic lurches and angular melodic lines speak for themselves. At 66 minutes it’s a generous, immersive sit with one of the most underappreciated voices of the early Classical period.
Barbara Schlick (soprano), Wilfried Jochens (tenor), Stephan Schreckenberger (bass), Claudia Schubert (alto)Das Kleine Konzert, Hermann Max
Capriccio · C10426 · 59 minutes
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach occupies this fascinating, slightly melancholy corner of music history — the eldest son, the one everyone expected to carry the torch, writing music that’s genuinely strange and searching in ways his father’s never quite is. These cantatas have a restless harmonic language that keeps you slightly off-balance, like the ground is always gently shifting underfoot. Hermann Max and Das Kleine Konzert lean right into that unease, and with Barbara Schlick’s luminous soprano anchoring the ensemble, the whole thing feels both intimate and emotionally exposed.
