Along with Beethoven's sonatas and the purely idiomatic works for piano of Chopin and Debussy the solo keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach represents the heart of the pianist's repertory; in the more specialized field of music for the organ Bach's primacy seems beyond challenge. This listener's guide to Bach's music for the keyboard provides the interested amateur with a close but non-technical look at these two crucial parts of the master's oeuvre. The composer's tendency to work exhaustively in tightly structured formats ä such as the 48 preludes and fugues of ÊThe Well-Tempered ClavierÊ ä provides a natural framework for this study; but the power beauty high polish and occasionally the sheer strangeness of Bach's imagination are carefully examined as well.
