This cleverly thought-out album is a tribute to Bach and his kindred spirits. Who is akin to whom? Are they spiritual or elective kinships? In...

This cleverly thought-out album is a tribute to Bach and his kindred spirits. Who is akin to whom? Are they spiritual or elective kinships? In the first instance, all the pieces recorded here are akin to each other in that they are especially suitable or that most sensitive of all keyboard instruments, the clavichord. Beauty is another common feature, which they display in their own way. And in the circle of fifths these pieces are very close to one another. Personal and familial kinships become apparent with the name of Bach. It is also known that JS Bach chose JA Reincken, around forty years his senior, as his teacher: Reincken can certainly be described as a musical father, a true kindred spirit, to JS Bach. Johann Gottfried Muthel slots into the ensemble as a logical consequence. He was JS Bach’s last pupil who had participated in transcribing The Art of Fugue and who composed in a consistently new and noncontrapuntal style. In this respect, he is musically much closer to Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, almost a brother to them.