This never-before-released concert recording by pianist Keith Jarrett of Book I of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, made in March 1987 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, New York, is now issued in ECM’s 50th anniversary year.

”These are performances in which tempos, phrasing, articulation and the execution of ornaments are convincing,” wrote Gramophone of Jarrett’s first recorded account of the first 24 of Bach’s “48” some three decades ago. “Both instrument and performer serve as unobtrusive media through which the music emerges without enhancement.”

In this live recording from Troy, just one month after his studio recording of the work, Jarrett addresses the challenges of Bach’s great set of preludes and fugues once more. Part of the goal is transparency, to bring the listener closer to the composer. As the pianist explained at the time: “The very direction of the lines, the moving lines of notes, are inherently expressive...When I play Bach, I hear almost the process of thought. Any coloration has nothing to do with this process.”