Daniel Barenboim is one of the most distinguished and respected pianists alive today. He has performed and recorded an astonishing range of keyboard repertoire in a career that has lasted 55 years to date. However, this is the first time he has recorded Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental work for the keyboard, The Well-Tempered Clavier. Book II was assembled in 1744, more than 20 years after the completion of Book I. Some of it actually predates Book I, and some of the Preludes were once familiar as freestanding pieces in their own right.