Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

For this release, pianist Dina Ugorskaja has recorded Book I and II of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in Cooperation with Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich. On interpreting these works, Dina writes: “One essential aspect in this project was the experience of returning to my early encounters with Bach’s music: to try to remember what it had been like when I heard it for the first time. I tried to free myself from certain clichés that had ‘gotten stuck’ in a series of interpretations. This was particularly difficult in Volume I, since I had often heard those pieces in the hands of outstanding performers. ”Dina Ugorskaja gave her debut performance when she was only seven years old in the Philharmonic Hall at Saint Petersburg. Not only is she an outstanding pianist, she is also a vocalist specializing in early music, and has written a number of chamber works. In September 2019 Dina Ugorskaja passed away in the age of 46, and left her recordings as a testament.

“The continuity [to deal with Bach on a daily basis] did not come about until the year I prepared the recording. Every morning when I woke up I thought that today I would have another whole day with Bach – in the same form that is only apparently the same, in the form of prelude and fugue – and that I could devote myself entirely and exclusively to this activity. It was a work that grounded and structured me very much and at the same time directed my gaze towards the sky. The concept of infinity has never before been so evident to me as it was during my occupation with WTK. The intensity carried me… An essential aspect of the work was to return to my earliest acquaintance with this music. The feeling of regaining what it was like when I first heard her. I tried to emancipate myself from certain clichés that had become entrenched in the interpretations of this or that piece. With volume I this was particularly difficult for me – the pieces are more frequently heard, both by important interpreters and by students…… I play the modern grand piano and use its possibilities, but it is not my intention to make the Steinway sound like a harpsichord or clavichord; it can evoke the memory of these instruments as of all the others that occur in Bach with all their colours and shades….. I’m trying to slow down on this one too!”