It has often been overlooked that, between Bach’s death (1750) and the triumphant revival of his 'St Matthew Passion' by Mendelssohn in 1829, other composers had already investigated the oeuvre of this ‘old master’. Mozart was the most fervent among them; thanks to the discoveries of Baron van Swieten, he had the opportunity to explore 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' and make the string arrangements from it featured on this disc.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin add to their extensive Bach discography with Stephan Mai as konzertmeister. His note on the scoring explains that "In K426, K426a, and K546 we follow Mozart’s own indications as to scoring. The other study works that have come down to us in manuscript scores (for string quartet) offer scope for instrumentation in different textures: string orchestra, string quartet, wind alone, and a combination of strings and wind, as in the last work on the programme, serve the dramaturgical conception of this CD and follow no particular principle apart from that of feasibility.

It goes without saying that the contrapuntal unfolding of the lines in J. S. Bach’s fugues was not to be altered for the sake of the instrumentation, for example by redistributing the voices."