Organist, harpsichordist and sometimes pianist Wolfgang Rübsam here performs Bach’s monumental Das woltemperirte Clavier on a single-manual gut-strung Lautenwerk or lute-harpsichord built in 2015 by Keith Hill. It has two sets of jacks so the player can imitate the ability of a lutenist to move his or her right hand further from or closer to the bridge to change the tone quality.

Like his other Bach recordings using the Lautenwerk, including the French Suites, the so-called Lute Suites and beautiful arrangements of the Cello Suites and Violin Sonatas and Partitas, these are revelatory. This is partly due to Rübsam’s decision to use ‘Bach’s manuscript and literally follow the vertical alignment of notes – those meant to be played at about the same time – as they actually appear from Bach’s hand in relationship to one another so that, if one pitch appears to the left of another, it is played slightly before those to the right’. This could be framed within the style brisé especially favoured by French and German lutenists, whereby not only chords but intervals were habitually arpeggiated or ‘broken’. It is Rübsam’s default, along with that cantabile style of playing which is closer to speech than song, and a generous rubato in the midst of almost exclusively slow tempos.

Sometimes, and the opening C major Prelude of Book 1 is a case in point, listening feels like swimming through toffee. But for the most part, as is the case with Book 1’s F sharp minor Fugue, it’s more akin to a great mystery being slowly, deliciously revealed, note by note. These are introspective, ruminative, whispered accounts that draw you in. And while Rübsam’s style is more suited to those preludes that are freely improvisatory rather than danced, in fugues such as Book 2’s A minor or F minor, expositions unfold with a profound sense of submerged splendour. To be sure, this approach, and the other-worldly sound of the Lautenwerk itself, won’t be to everyone’s taste. But one thing’s for certain: you’ll never listen to any of Bach’s music in the same way again.