Bach, J S: Adagio in G major, BWV968

As harpsichordist, conductor, and musical director of the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset is one of the finest interpreters of Baroque music. His first recording for Aparté, devoted to Louis Couperin, was received most enthusiastically by public and critics alike, and collected many distinctions in the international press including BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Choice.

Now at the peak of his maturity, the artist presents an original programme, Bach Fantasy, in which he treats us to little-known works but also standards by the great J.S. Bach. Apart from the important sets of works, including the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the keyboard Suites and Partitas, many miscellaneous pieces by Bach have come down to us in the hand of his pupils and admirers: early essays, pieces of a didactic nature, evocations of emotions, and sometimes all of the above. Christophe Rousset plays these pieces on the 1632 Ruckers harpsichord of Neuchâtel, one of the finest in the world.

Hyperion’s Record of the Month for July sees Angela Hewitt rounding off her acclaimed series of solo Bach recordings with this delightful miscellany. A range of genres are represented – fantasia and fugues, chorale preludes, suites, a sonata, a set of variations – from different periods of Bach’s life, and displaying a wide variety of form, style, influence and scope. This is music that has been neglected largely because it doesn’t sit within the famous Bach canons rather than because of its intrinsic quality. Angela Hewitt brings her customary style and elegance to these works, and her vivid, joyous music-making creates a fitting conclusion to this benchmark modern survey of Bach’s keyboard works

+ 77-minute bonus sampler disc

Angela Hewitt’s acclaimed recordings of Bach on the piano have received the highest critical acclaim and found their way into thousands of homes, selling nearly 400,000 copies since her recording of the Inventions burst onto the scene in 1994. Now for the first time Angela’s complete solo Bach is available as a boxed set of 15 CDs at a special price. A perfect gift for the few music-lovers left in the world who have not experienced these matchless performances; and for those who have, a chance to fall in love all over again.

‘Angela Hewitt’s Bach has long been a thing of wonder’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Everything is right, everything is natural – this is Bach on the piano of the highest quality imaginable’ (The Guardian)

‘I know of no musician whose Bach playing on any instrument is of greater subtlety, beauty of tone, persuasiveness of judgement or instrumental command than Hewitt's is here’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Hewitt remains today's finest exponent of Bach's keyboard music’ (Gramophone)