Bach, J S - Italian Concerto - Schnabel, Artur (piano)

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This release contains all of Schnabel’s commercial disc recordings of the works of J. S. Bach, a composer whose keyboard music the pianist felt was too intimate for performance in the concert hall. One of Schnabel’s greatest talents was the ability to employ not only seemingly natural tempos but, more importantly, the perfect tempo relationship between sections and movements. Of the recording of the Toccata in C minor, BWV 911, one critic wrote upon its release, ‘Schnabel has rarely made a more satisfying recording than this. He refuses speed and brilliance to the opening Allegro moderato, taking it more slowly than is usual… he makes the transition to the Adagio seem inevitably right.’ The Prelude and Fugue from The Well- Tempered Clavier was the last recording Schnabel made before his death in 1951.