LDV38.1

27 CÉDRIC PESCIA What is your view on performance on period instruments? For years, I wrongly considered that Bach’s genius had come out of nowhere. But musicological knowledge is essential. The question of organology opens up significant perspectives for the performer, who has a duty to be ‘historically informed’. It’s impossible nowadays to ignore the contribution of people like Gustav Leonhardt and Scott Ross, who approached Bach’s works in their context. Artists are the product of their time. All the same, I wouldn’t have considered recording this comprehensive collection on three different instruments. First of all because I’m a pianist and not a specialist in other instruments and, second, because that would be the easy way out. I am convinced that the pianomakes it possible –much more than the harpsichord – to suggest the voices of a choir or the timbres of a violin, an oboe . . . In any case, the choice of instrument is a subject of endless debate. What is the challenge of learning and recording The Well-Tempered Clavier ? At the recording sessions, I played without a score. My eyes were no longer distracted by looking at paper and I could interpret in complete freedom. In concert, I use the score. We needed four days of recording for the Second Book; it’s more complex than the First Book, which we completed in just three days. I recorded the Second Book in two distinct groups of sessions and for a long time I hesitated between several very different takes of certain preludes and fugues.