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"The work of works" (Robert Schumann): "An everlasting treasure of the piano repertoire and piano pedagogy, almost without rival" (Denes Bartha). Such is the high praise that has been lauded by musicians and music historians on Johann Sebastian Bach's two-volume work in the nigh 300 years since it was written. Each volume of the cycle contains 24 preludes and fugues, in all of the major and minor keys, each pair progressing upwards by one semitone - a unique undertaking for its time.Although the Wohltemperiertes Klavier is still today the daily bread of student pianists of the highest calibre, alongside its pedagogical role, its greatest importance lies in the encyclopaedic richness of its musical contents, the variety of types of movement, textures and characters, the formal rigour and freedom, and the juxtaposition of archaic and the most modern of styles from Bach's time. Both volumes contain prelude-and-fugue pairs of which were conceivably written at different times.Borbala Dobozy began higher education harpsichord studies with Zuzana Ruzickova at the Academy of Music in Bratislava and then continued with her at the Prague Academy of Music. In the following years she studied historical performance practice: first at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under the guidance of Liselotte Brändle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Johann Sonnleitner. She then studied for a year at the Zurich University of the Arts as a student of Johann Sonnleitner.She has given courses in Hungary, Norway, Germany, Austria, Belarus, Slovenia and Serbia. From 2005 to 2013, she was a teacher at the "Brillamment baroque" course in early music, held annually in Thoiry, France. She has given concerts, and made recordings for radio and TV in most European countries and in the US.Borbala Dobozy's artistic work focuses on the oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach: she has played almost all of his compositions for the harpsichord, including all the orchestral and chamber works.

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Coming straight to Borbála Dobozy's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 right after her Book 1 (review) is a shock. The instrument used for Book 2 is a recently built replica of a harpsichord from around 1706 which has a 16' stop, and with all that extra bass oomph straight from the first Prelude in C major I was a little worried that we might be embarking on something comparable with recordings by the formidable Wanda Landowska. Use of the 16' stop is thankfully sparing in this set, though it is a wonderful effect and nice to have as a weapon of maximum contrast. Dobozy admits that this register would have been unusual for the period, but she is clearly inspired by this instrument. 'The richness and variety of this series, unparalleled in content, prompted me to exploit more fully the opportunities for combinations of timbre, to change register more often, and in some cases to adopt an organ-like manner of performing.' The recording is also an homage to the instrument maker Jürgen Ammer, who built the case for this fine instrument but died before the project could be completed. As with Book 1, Borbála Dobozy doesn't go in for wild extremes of tempo, certainly not in terms of breakneck speed but also not in any kind of over-reverential slowness. She avoids rubato while introducing enough elasticity to allow the music to flow with a natural ease and sense of shape. The recording is perfectly balanced, with plenty of detail but also just enough space between the listener and the thrumming strings of the instrument to allow a highly enjoyable play through of the whole set in one sitting. There is a vibrancy and animation in the playing here that adds an extra layer of fun when compared to Dobozy's recording of Book 1. This is a perfectly fine and indeed superlatively musical performance, but I noted that, if we were taking the red-blooded Bach fatherhood test then it would have come out at a slightly cooler 17 children, whereas with this Book 2 we are most certainly back up to the full 20 babies. The tuning here is the more robust-sounding Neidhardt system, which has a more forgiving effect in remote keys when compared to the more fragile sounding Kirnberger III used for Book 1. The variety of colour with the various registers selected for each prelude and fugue creates a narrative in its own right, and Dobozy's choices always seem entirely appropriate. Where this recording wins is in lifting these preludes and in particular the fugues out of being any kind of dry academic exercise. The rhythm is infectious in the Fugue in A major, and the dramatic subsequent Fugue in A minor is a masterclass in pacing and delivery after the anticipation created in the first bars. These two are chosen almost at random, but similar comments could be made about every performance in this set. You know you are in for a fine experience within just a few minutes from the start, and there are no weak points throughout. In terms of quality for a harpsichord recording of Bach's BWV 870-882 this is way up with the likes of Bob van Asperen (review), though there are enough differences to make one want to keep both sets.

     —Dominy Clements, musicweb-international.com (UK)