Pierre Hantaï

Presented by Philippe Maillard Productions (L-2-R-22-123841/3-22-12385) Pierre Hantaï, harpsichord JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHThe Well-Tempered Clavier – extracts from the Deuxième Livre Avec the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach delivers a real monument. In two large collections of preludes and fugues (1722 and 1744), he methodically explores all the possibilities offered by the equal temperament, born a few decades earlier. He seizes the improvised character of the prelude while giving it a remarkable magnitude by the inventiveness and polyphonic richness. As for the fugue, a centuries-old architectural form par excellence, it renews its possibilities with an astonishing diversity. One thing is certain: in the Well-Tempered Clavier there is an impression of absolute freedom. Over the centuries, the score has established itself as the bedside book of the greatest figures in keyboard music: Mozart, Chopin and Schumann. Undisputed master of this repertoire, Pierre Hantaï knows all the subtleties and signs interpretations become references.