Johann Sebastian Bach : Bach and the Early Pianoforte

Piano International (May, 2014)
Like Prospero’s isle, this disc is full of ‘sounds and sweet airs’ played on ‘twangling instruments’; not a thousand, though, just three – all examples of the early keyboards on which Luca Guglielmi is an expert performer. He shares the limelight here with copies of a 1726 Cristofori fortepiano, a 1749 Silbermann fortepiano and a 1784 Hubert clavichord. He employs the Silbermann for six of the disc’s eight works – a reasonable choice, given that Bach played a Silbermann. Both fortepianos possess a range of seductive timbres, their mellow, soft-edged charm further enhanced by Guglielmi’s adoption of the Bach-Lehman temperament. He plays Bach’s early Toccata in C minor, BWV 911, on …