It was a significant step: the decision of the French composer Erik Satie, in 1884, to write his first name henceforth with a “k”. He was born on 17 May 1866 as Eric Satie in Normandy’s Honfleur, from where England lies almost in view. His mother, born in London, had English and Scottish blood. And in his work and in his personage, irony, understatement, and British-sounding humour are never far away. Despite an unmistakably French sound in his music, he did not regard himself as a musicien français, as his friend Debussy styled himself on his card.

Dutch pianist Marcel Worms has been performing his programme New Blues for Piano since 1997. Some 200 new blues pieces from around 50 different countries were commissioned for Worms for this project and this release features a selection from the most recent repertory of new blues (composed between 2011 and 2016) as well as pieces from the repertoire of the entire project that are most dear to Worms. The project highlights the significance of the blues in jazz and the pieces provide insight into what the blues mean to the contemporary composer.

The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) contains 24 preludes and 24 fugues, each piece a personality with its own unique character. A prelude is always followed by a fugue in the same key. With an endless fantasy Bach lets the different voices speak, each for itself yet also in dialogue with and attuned to each other. A perfect technical mastery of the form goes hand in hand with the ability to translate all conceivable human emotions into sound.

You can’t say A without saying B: pianist Marcel Worms took up the challenge, to record the second book after his double album with the complete first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (2020).