Walter Gieseking’s interpretations of Bach in the early years of his career gained him laurels for “his control over shades of tone, especially over infinite gradations in the range between piano and pianissimo, the clear definition of his agile finger-work, and the firm outlines of his rhythm and phrasing... This style, so lucid and so rhythmical, is the perfect vehicle for Bach’s keyboard music”.

Gieseking’s 1931 account of Beethoven’s ‘Tempest’ Sonata also won him contemporary critical accolades: “Perfect playing matched with perfect recording. I know of no better interpretation of this sonata… a splendid achievement, one of the high water marks of piano recording”.

Contents:
Johann Sebastian Bach
- Concerto in the Italian Style, BWV 971 ‘Italian Concerto’
Recorded in January 1940, Berlin

- Partita No.1 in B flat major, BWV 825 (excerpts)
Recorded in January 1939, in Berlin and August 1934, in Vienna

- Partita No.5 in G major, BWV 829
Recorded on 5th April 1939, in New York

- Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830
Recorded on 28th February 1939, in New York

- French Suite No.5 in G major, BWV 816 VIII. Gigue
Recorded on 5th April 1939, in New York

- Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 Jesu bleibet meine Freude, ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’ (arr. M. Hess)
Recorded on 5th April 1939, in New York

Ludwig van Beethoven
- Piano Sonata No.17 in D minor, Op.31, No.2, ‘Tempest’
Recorded on 13th March 1931, in Westminster Central Hall, London

- 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: No.1 in E flat major
Recorded on 11th August 1938, in Westminster Central Hall, London