s a child, I learned my share of the Bach Inventions. One day, my mom promised me $5 if I learned all fifteen of them. She also promised $5 if I learned all the Sinfonias, the "three-part inventions", and $15 if I learned the whole Well-Tempered Clavier. She kept her promise and gave me the five bucks once I had all the Inventions under my belt. At music camp (Tanglewood, 1981), my piano teacher gave me the $5 as motivation to learn the Sinfonias. I started learning the preludes and fugues of Book Two in 1987, and performed them in California during the late '90s.

I heard somewhere that Pablo Casals used to start each day with a prelude and fugue from the WTC, and I've been meaning to record these pieces ever since I learned them. This website has served as a good excuse to do that. I'm on schedule (except for the G minor prelude), having started February 11, but once I have them all uploaded, I'll be going back through and trying to improve on these initial recordings. (There are manifold fumbles, as you'll hear.) None of it is studio magickry, though; my computer records the audio from my digital piano in one take. A savvy recording engineer could splice together something brilliant from my hard drive, I'm sure, but I'm an old-fashioned performer.

Just so's you know. I'm saving the learning of the rest of Book One for my dotage.