This special disc offers a selection from the wealth of piano transcriptions of Bach's music. The Bach revival that gathered momentum during the nineteenth century created a climate for many composer-pianists to interpret his works through their own piano transcriptions, whether of chorale preludes, organ works or other instrumental music. Much of Bach's music was made domestically available via such arrangements. Indeed, the practice of transcriptions was widely used by Bach himself, who freely adapted his own and others' music for different instrumental settings.

On this CD, dedicated to her organist father Godfrey Hewitt, Angela Hewitt chooses her favourite Bach transcriptions by Wilhelm Kempff (including his rousing “Wachet Auf”), Eugen d’Albert (C minor Passacaglia), Myra Hess (Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring), as well as several of her own. It also includes a number of arrangements from A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen rarely heard before.

Recorded in Henry Wood Hall, London, on 1-4 April 2001