‘The Old Testament of Piano Music’ (von Bülow) was a decisive work in our adoption of a 12-tone chromatic system. It is also a treasury of musical scholarship. On another level still, it is a library of human emotion. So – historically important, scholarly and a work of ranging moods. It has been well served on disc. Two versions that encom-pass all three elements stand out head and shoulders above others.

One has to be in the right environment and frame of mind before sitting down to absorb 24 preludes and fugues one after the other. I can’t say that I enjoy every single prelude and every single fugue, and I certainly prefer to hear them by the handful rather than sitting through two discs without a break.

The first thing to be said is that the piano sound on this recording is a good deal better than that on some of Daniel Barenboim’s recent piano discs – warmly focused, intimate, and played on a beautifully voiced instrument. A light touch, sparingly but not dryly pedalled with a lucid realisation of the woof and warp. The fugue tempi seem a little stodgy, the occasional fussy ornament is introduced, but this is thoughtful playing born of long years’ acquaintance and which reveres the iconic status of the work.

It soon becomes clear, though, that Barenboim views these pieces purely as absolute music: the final – and vital – human element is missing. Real joy, tragedy, wit and charm come at a premium. There is not much to smile at. Turn to Edwin Fischer, whose first 19 preludes and fugues are contained on disc one (Barenboim squeezes in just 12). Take then, as a random example, the A minor Prelude and Fugue, the former glittering and gleeful, the latter full of character whose counterpoint seems to emerge organically. Barenboim, by comparison, is mechanical and didactic respectively. Listen to this same prelude and fugue in the greatest (in this reviewer’s opinion) version on disc of the Well-Tempered Clavier and the difference is even more apparent. Samuel Feinberg (Russian Disc, sadly nla) conveys a sense of (dare we say it) fun – and hear how imaginatively he phrases and colours the bars between 00'36" and 00'48" starting with an unexpected E flat. I can listen to Feinberg’s 24 preludes and fugues at a single sitting and with the greatest pleasure.