Mahan Esfahani has been steadily exploring JS Bach’s keyboard works for Hyperion, culminating in one of the great monuments of Western music. Like many performers, he has lived with Bach’s 48 preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier, for more than half his life. Returning to the work now, he says, “with decades of performance and scholarship behind me, has been both a challenge and a homecoming.”
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Esfahani approaches these pieces with deeply personal interpretations. “This is a perfectly crafted piece of theatre,” he has said, and in his performances, each prelude and fugue occupies its own dramatic space. His harpsichord, a modern copy of an early 18th-century two-manual instrument similar to one Bach is known to have played, is tuned to give a unique colour to each key. Contrary to common belief, the “well-tempered” of the work’s title refers not to equal temperament, but to how just tuning may be adapted to the demands of each major and minor scale.
After the B minor fugue, Esfahani repeats the C major prelude in a Goldberg-style return, highlighting how many preludes are variations on the initial form. He describes this as “[an] harmonic outline over which a melodic kernel is repeated throughout.” While some ideas are contentious, such as the slightly lugubrious C sharp minor fugue, his tempi are generally uncontroversial, and his shaping of each movement is lucid and compelling.
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Esfahani’s interpretation balances scholarly insight with expressive performance, demonstrating a profound understanding of Bach’s musical architecture. His Well-Tempered Clavier recordings are both a testament to his artistry and a fresh lens through which to experience these enduring masterpieces.
