CD – George Lepauw – A complete Well-Tempered Clavier
By Cyril Brun for Cyrano Musique, April 9, 2020
A prowess, an in-depth preparation in both senses of the term, a rumination on Bach: thus was born this project intended to record, but also to give the complete Well-Tempered Clavier in live performance.
I must admit that when I answered George Lepauw’s invitation to go hear him perform in Paris during a gilet jaune strike, I agreed as a friendly gesture and by curiosity more than by desire, telling myself that “a whole afternoon with this keyboard work in sight, here was something to test my endurance!”
But this was not to be the case and in the cold church, the dazzle as well as the clarity of the performance very quickly awoke my senses and carried me off, as much into the infinite space suggested by the church and the score as by this composition’s summits. And far from seeming to be a demonstration in crystal clear diction, George Lepauw made us live an experience that put in perspective what we too often stammer as an exercise.
The recording is out and hailed by the press; we can but recommend it to music lovers, confined or not.