Bach Das wohltemperierte Klavier, Book 2, BWV870-93. Jeno Jando (pf).

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 550970/1 (two discs: 142 minutes: DDD).

Interpretation is born in the mind and if the requisite technique is present it emerges through the fingers, as it does here through Jando’s; nowhere is it more important than in this music, where the threads woven into Bach’s fabrics need to be made clear and presented in proper perspective. Jando achieves this magnificently, without recourse to either inappropriate ‘pianism’ or any misguided effort to make his instrument mimic a harpsichord. All is accomplished through sensitively controlled touch, enhancing pedalling, and dynamic variations that reflect the ebb and flow of musical tension without exaggeration; the highlighting of particular voices is impossible on the harpsichord, for which the music was written, and though Jando treats his piano as such he rarely comes close to straining one’s belief in what he does.

In all stylistic matters his correctness never sounds consciously contrived, though a few ornaments are laboured (for example, those in the C minor Prelude at 0'14" and 0'16"), and his slight rallentandos near the ends of movements are just sufficient to herald the finale denouements. He gives each movement a specific and well-defined character, but never a romantic one; this is not the least of his achievements. The recording is clear, the annotation fine, and the two discs come in a gatefold case of single-disc width: ‘compact’ indeed.

JD