The Glenn Gould Edition - Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Glenn Gould's Bach is by now so ingrained in the 20th-century musical consciousness that it's almost hard to remember just how unusual his devotion to this composer was back in the 1950s and '60s when he first started making records. That his Bach recordings are still the standard by which all others are measured is a tribute to his self-awareness as an artist. If you are looking for the essential Glenn Gould playing Bach, then the three sets you really ought to have are his Goldberg Variations (either version), plus the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Gould was simply incomparable in the contrapuntal intricacies of Bach's fugal writing, and in The Well-Tempered Clavier he has 48 opportunities to strut his stuff. He makes a show of every one. --David Hurwitz