The reservations voiced in my review of Richard Egarr’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 (12/07) apply to its sequel. If anything, his rhythmic liberties in the name of agogic stylishness have become more pronounced throughout Book 2. What specific harmonic, structural or expressive purpose do the fitful distensions of phrase serve in the C major Prelude and G major Fugue? If you play the F minor Prelude straight, you soon latch on to Bach’s deceptive phrase displacement, whereas Egarr’s lurching pulse renders the composer’s structural ingenuity beside the point. Nor does Egarr differentiate the D major Prelude’s duplets and triplets with ideal distinction and character, while the A major Prelude’s inner lilt and jig-like profile come off like a heavy car chugging uphill, out of petrol. And if you like Rosalyn Tureck’s slow and pedantically pounded-out G minor and B flat minor Fugues, you’ll like Egarr even more.

Still, there are bright moments. The C sharp minor Fugue’s rounded-off phrases and breath pauses, for example, convey a convincing, vocally informed continuity, while sensitive accentuations and an uncommonly brisk basic tempo keep you guessing just where the barlines fall in the G sharp minor Fugue. As with Book 1, Harmonia Mundi reproduces Egarr’s dulcet 1991 Joel Katzman instrument, based upon a 1638 Ruckers (Antwerp) model, with spacious yet not overly resonant engineering that falls easily on the ear.