This new CD from The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) presents Book II of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, performed here by Ewa Pobłocka.

This release follows her 2019 album for NIFC – the first volume of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier – which caused a sensation and was listed among the fifty best recordings of J.S. Bach's music by Gramophone magazine: "I can claim without hesitation that Ewa Pobłocka's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I encompasses some of the greatest and most fulfilling Bach pianism on record" (Editor's Choice, April 2019).

Although little is still known about the history and motivation behind the composing of the second book of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 870–893), the current state of source knowledge allows us to date it probably to the beginning of the 1740s. The term 'Book II' may create the false impression that this is a supplement to or continuation of the collection of 24 preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys familiar from the year 1722, from Book 1. In structural terms, the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier obviously resembles its predecessor in many respects – above all in the way the cycle is organised according to key. But while in the first book the preludes and fugues in identical keys were numbered separately ('Praeludium 1', 'Fuga 1', and so on), in the second book, they were presented in pairs ('Praelude et Fugue 1'), as can be seen clearly in the 'London' manuscript.

There is no doubt that the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier also reflects changes that occurred in musical style at the beginning of the 1740s. Bach evidently tried to adapt to the preferences and demands of his younger pupils. He also had no hesitation in stylistically 'freshening up' the earlier compositions that he included in this set. Hence some of those in Book 2 bear features of a genuine, modern style galant.

Ewa Pobłocka (piano) has given performances with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has premiered works by Polish contemporary composers Andrzej Panufnik, Witold Lutosławski, Paweł Szymański, and Paweł Mykietyn, and recorded more than 50 albums with solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire.