Bach: The Toccatas
A toccata--from the Italian word meaning "to touch"--was originally a glorified keyboard warm-up, in which scales and arpeggios were tossed off with improvisatory abandon. But as Angela Hewitt shows, Bach's youthful forays into this genre were finely wrought gems, masterpieces in miniature. This dazzling CD matches the extraordinarily high standards she has set herself in the complete keyboard Bach she is building up year by year. Her touch is springy and muscular, her pulse rock-steady; the more anarchic Bach's fancy becomes, the more rigorously she controls its expression. Taking her cue from the absence of autograph manuscripts, she puts these works into a satisfying running order, so we can savor them as we would at a recital. The liner notes are--as usual with this coruscating communicator--a performance in themselves. Musical commentary is seldom so fresh, or so illuminating for those who want to follow in her footsteps. And yes, she makes a brilliant case for the piano in Bach: in these 65 glorious minutes, there's not one dull moment.--Michael Church