Johann Sebastian Bach’s cycle of preludes and fugues The Well-Tempered Clavier takes a very
special place in the world of music. It is not just one of the immortal masterpieces of the world
music literature. It literally is an encyclopedia of polyphonic art, its Alpha and Omega; it is a desk book of every thinking musician, a necessary manual for life, and at the same time an inexhaustible source
of pleasure.
Bach finished the second part of The Well-Tempered Clavier in 1744, twenty years after he created
the first part. The reason for composing the send part was his wish to collect in one book the preludes
and fugues he wrote at different time and lost among old papers. Bach also wanted to substantially
rework these preludes and fugues, give them their final form applying the experience he gained through
the years. And that was a truly all-bracing experience.
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier gives plenty of play to very different performer’s interpretations.
None of the significant music works has caused as many difficulties and debates about the way it should be interpreted. Such a deep, comprehensive and truly artistic approach to the cycle is typical of Sviato-
slav Richter.
“When I set to The Well-Tempered Clavier, I get always consumed with desire not to exclude any sides for the sake of one narrow and dogmatic position… I am convinced that Bach can be played differently,
with different articulation and different dynamics. So long as the whole is preserved, so long as the strict contours of style are not distorted, so long as the performance is convincing enough”, Richter said.
