"Strongly recommended.." (Gramophone)
" Gary Cooper gives a sublimely spiritual, spacious yet unusually cognent reading.." (The Sunday Times Pick of the Year - 2000)
"There is a real sense of gravitas about Gary Cooper's readings..." (Music Week)
"...makes a strong claim to being one of the finest offerings...combines intellectual lucidity...with an uncanny sense of expressive intensity...leaves us..thirsting for the next" (Sunday Times)
"..the nobility of the music and the clarity of Bach's contrapuntal textures are highlighted throughout" (Classic FM Magazine) "..among the more distinguished available...profound intellectual understanding of the music itself.." (Early Music Review)
"...I've enjoyed very much what I've been listening to...very appealing" (International Record Review)
"This is one of the best renditions of these works that I know." (Fanfare)
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier I (Gaudeamus - CDGAX251)
A truly great performance of Book I of "The Forty-Eight" (with Book II to follow), marks an amazing solo debut for Gary Cooper on Gaudeamus. Bach's two huge sets of Preludes and Fugues for keyboard, each consisting of 24 in all the major and minor keys, are among the most deeply satisfying of all baroque keyboard works, both for player and listener. Book I was completed by 1722 (Book II followed 20 years later).
Clearly it is one of Bach's most carefully and lovingly planned works. From the wonderfully serene, simple C major Prelude (so familiar, with Gounod's embellishments, as Ave Maria), to the last mighty B minor Fugue (7½ minutes!), of such weight and profundity as to sum up the entire work, we are led through a musical journey of almost Odyssean proportions. Our guide is the prodigiously talented young British harpsichordist Gary Cooper, already one of the leading stars of the early music scene.
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier 2 (Gaudeamus - CDGAX254)
Bach's two huge sets of Preludes and Fugues for keyboard, each consisting of 24 in all the major and minor keys, are familiarly known as "The Forty-Eight". They provided a practical demonstration of the advantage of tuning instruments in "equal temperament" with all semitones equal, thus allowing all keys to be played. More importantly, they are among the most deeply satisfying of all baroque keyboard works, both for player and listener.
Despite appearing fully 20 years after Book I, Bach's second set of 1742 was conceived as part of a single magnus opus. Musically, however, the approach is quite different with a big expansion in the range of styles. Many of the fugues contain memorable themes that colour the whole work and take precedence over contrapuntal devices that dominated the structure of the highly organised Book I, and most of the preludes are on a larger scale. Altogether, this treasure house of ingenuity and inspiration has become the musical bible for professional musicians ever since.
Our guide is the prodigiously talented young British harpsichordist Gary Cooper, already one of the leading stars of the early music scene. He is currently featured in the Gaudeamus catalogue directing New Chamber Opera in Charpentier, Purcell and Rameau, and playing fortepiano with Monica Huggett's Sonnerie in Mozart Piano Quartets, but this marks his solo debut for the label. It is a remarkable tour de force.
"..crystalline clarity reigns throughout." (Gramophone)
"..consummate musicianship...an account that rivals those of the big names." (Independent on Sunday)
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