Jeremy Denk review – Well-Tempered Clavier is reshaped and illuminated afresh | Classical music
When JS Bach composed the first instalment of his Well-Tempered Clavier it had a simple premise. Part compositional brainteaser, part circuit training for performers, the book includes one prelude and one fugue for each of the 12 keys in western tonality in their major and minor forms, to be played on whichever keyboard instrument was available.That instrument definitely wouldn’t have been a Steinway concert grand piano (yet to be invented in 1722). And Bach would presumably have been surprised to find a sizeable audience…