Home listening - Bach on harpsichord, piano, organ… take your pick

The Guardian 0

Revelatory Mahan Esfahani, Keith Jarrett live in 1987 and Olivier Latry at the Proms

• Now that we so often hear Bach’s keyboard works played on the piano (and the debate about whether it’s even legitimate to listen to them on a modern instrument has subsided), returning to performances on the harpsichord can prove a revelation. This is especially true in hands as persuasive as those of the Iranian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.

His new disc of Bach’s Toccatas (Hyperion) conveys the spirit and expressive freedom of these seven early works, for which no single autograph source survives. Some serious detective work is required to address issues of ornamentation and phrasing, colour and clarity, which Bach would have expected to vary according to a performer’s taste. Esfahani, who explains their complex history in a detailed essay, has made his own new performing edition and reveals these familiar pieces to have mysteries we may never have suspected.