Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Aspiring piano students slaving over these preludes and fugues will find  a viable role model in the prolific Jenö Jandó. His no-nonsense, direct approach  is a sonically upgraded antidote to Friedrich Gulda's similarly conceived but  dryly recorded versions on Philips. Ornaments are well considered, and tempos  fit into a Goldilocks range of not too fast, not too slow, but just right.  What's missing, though, is a feeling for rhythmic transparency, for the way  Bach's phrases reach over the barline. This has more to do with inner musicality  than stylistic niceties. For this reason it's worth the time and money to seek  out Sviatoslav Richter or, best of all, the unknown but unsurpassed Samuel  Feinberg.--Jed Distler