Pianist Patrick Hemmerlé: Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II

These concerts offer a chance to hear one of the foundational works of the Western musical canon. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier has been a major influence on composers as diverse as Mendelssohn, Chopin and Shostakovich, and remains a cornerstone in the formation of keyboard players, just as are Beethoven’s Sonatas and Chopin’s Études. Across its 48 Preludes and Fugues, Bach explores every major and minor key, creating an extraordinary variety of character, colour and contrapuntal invention. The freer, often lyrical Preludes are paired with the astonishing intellectual and musical discipline of the Fugues, in a sequence that continually surprises and delights. Yet the sheer scale of the collection means that complete performances are rare. These concerts therefore offer not only an opportunity to encounter individual masterpieces, but to experience the remarkable coherence and variety of Bach’s conception as a whole.