Decca's Kaori Muraji Plays Bach doesn't make any pretensions toward representing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in his historical element as has become commonplace…

Strong but delicate, deliberate but subtle, driven but supple, Masaaki Suzuki's 2005 recording of Bach's Italian Concerto and French Overture for harpsichord are quite convincing in their own distinctive way…

Ondulation is a fascinating album featuring spellbinding recordings of Bach’s Suites and Partitas on the guitar, interspersed by first recordings of György Kurtág’s four short pieces extracted from “Darabok a Gitáriskolának”…

The second of Bach: The Organ Works by Megumi Yoshida, who achieved the performance of all the organ works by the first Japanese new Bach Complete Works. Like the previous work, Bach's beloved organ maker Arp Schnitger uses the timeless famous organ left in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Edwin Fischer's recording of the '48' was the first by a pianist of the set, and probably remains the finest of all.
Fischer might have agreed with András Schiff that Bach is the 'most romantic of all composers', for his superfine musicianship seems to live and breathe in another world. His sonority is as ravishing as it's apt, never beautiful for its own sake, and graced with a pedal technique so subtle that it results in a light and shade, a subdued sparkle or pointed sense of repartee that eludes lesser artists. No matter what complexity Bach throws at him, Fischer resolves it with a disarming poise and limpidity. All this is a far cry from, say, Glenn Gould's egotism in the '48'. Fischer showed a deep humility before great art, making the singling out of one or another of his performances an impertinence.

Blandine Verlet, a noted French harpsichordist, studied with Ruggiero Gerlin and Ralph Kirkpatrick. She began recording in the late 1970s for Philips, switching to the Astree label in the 1990s. Her recordings range from J.S. Bach's keyboard works to Froberger to lesser known composers such as Louis Couperin and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre. Her second recording of the Goldberg Variations, in 1992, has been called "one of the finest harpsichord versions in the catalog." With violinist Gerard Poulet she has recorded early violin sonatas by Mozart, using the older Baroque keyboard instruments rather than a fortepiano or modern piano. Verlet has also worked with flutist Stephen Preston and viola da gambist Jordi Savall. Her playing is noted for her control and restraint in not letting emotion carry her away.

The Christmas Oratorio (German: Weihnachts-Oratorium), BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a now lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The Christmas Oratorio is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander).