A veritable manifesto of the art of the keyboard at the time of Bach, this founding work of the Cantor’s writing and also of all keyboard literature, is recorded here on four exceptional organs.

Frédéric Desenclos’s committed choice, this ‘transition to the organ’ of the 48 preludes and fugues, proves highly successful. Perhaps never before has the architecture of these gems of imagination and compositional skill appeared so clearly; perhaps never have the phrasing and tempo choices seemed so obvious; doubtless never has a complete recording imposed itself as a work in itself. This reading almost makes us forget the original destination of these works for harpsichord, the recording itself particularly accentuating the registration work at the service of a wide variety of instrumental colour.