Album: Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bach Partitas (Decca)

Ashkenazy here follows his acclaimed version of the 48 Preludes and Fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier with another cornerstone of baroque keyboard endeavour, the six Bach Partitas "prepared for the soul's delight of music-lovers", according to the composer's own rubric.

The Partitas are more playful and varied than the Preludes and Fugues, Bach's impervious logicality here applied to such frothy material as the opening "Praeambulum" to the Partita No 5 in G major, and its later "Passepied" and "Gigue", where the balance of formality and courtly danceability is held in perfect equilibrium by Ashkenazy.

DOWNLOAD THIS Partita No 5 in G major; Partita No 1 in B flat major; Partita No 6 in E minor