Walter Gieseking’s interpretations of Bach in the early years of his career gained him laurels for “his control over shades of tone, especially over infinite gradations in the range between piano and pianissimo, the clear definition of his agile finger-work, and the firm outlines of his rhythm and phrasing… This style, so lucid and so rhythmical, is the perfect vehicle for Bach’s keyboard music”.

Gieseking’s 1931 account of Beethoven’s ‘Tempest’ Sonata also won him contemporary critical accolades: “Perfect playing matched with perfect recording. I know of no better interpretation of this sonata… a splendid achievement, one of the high water marks of piano recording”.