Céline Frisch - Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I - Gramophone

Céline Frisch proves that she is a natural Bach harpsichordist to the ends of her fingers. Throughout these 24 preludes and fugues she plays with a  crisp momentum and virtuosity that never lets up, yet is kept interesting by skilled and unobtrusive use of rubato and note-placement. Ideas and personality are here in plenty - the C sharp minor Fugue sheds a little of its usual weight for something more vigorous but in its way no less dark, the walking left-hand of the B minor Prelude acquires a delicious light tread, and I've never heard the C minor Fugue sound so jaunty - yet all seem to grow organically out of what is there in the music. Some may find Frisch's playing a little brisk overall, I suppose, but if she is breezy she is bracing too - who could resist her sparkling race through the D major Prelude, crowned at the end by a glorious flourish of ornamnentation? Through the recording is rater sonnet, Frisch's Bach is a joy to listen to. Let's hope for more.