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Thank you for listening! All the best! Thomas

Thank you for listening and your kind words - happy this interpretation resonates with you - all the best! Thomas

Thank you! Happy you are enjoying this - all the best, Thomas

A truly wonderful response for me - thank you! All the best! Thomas

@@ThomasSchwan Thank you for your kind answer! Hope you'll come and play one day in Lyon...

Thank you for your wonderful words, I am truly happy this interpretation resonates with you. All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you for your truly kind words and for listening! All the best! Thomas

Thank you so much for listening and for your wonderful words! All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you for your truly kind words - all the best to you! Thomas

Good evening, thank you for your kind words and message. Sometimes I think people philosophize too much about the small crowd at this concert: after all it was just a minimally advertised recital in a university hall, I don't have a press office and no real publicity was made, so the people who showed up did so for sheer interest in the work and are actually a lot by these standards. Regarding focus and memory, I'd feel truly sorry if other people, particularly other musicians, get impressed by these performances for all the wrong reasons (the equivalent of hollow virtuosity). All that matters is the spirit and the depth of one's interpretation, and whether it's played from memory or not is completely personal, up to the individual artist, and totally irrelevant for the sake of the spiritual and musical insight and delivery of this music. (In a few words, aim at the essence and not at the periphery). Having said that, I prepared Book 1 in about a year, and Book 2 in about 18 months. I had some background of course, having read through many of them as a young student. For Book 1, before learning the whole book I played the first 3 three or four times in public, and then the first 6 one time. I then did two full performances, the second of which is on TH-cam. For Book 2, I went directly to the whole thing and I did three performances, the second of which is on TH-cam. I do a lot of mental practice away from the piano - which is probably decisive. Trying them out 6 by 6 is an excellent idea, and I'd personally recommend doing that in public, too - with a 5-10 minute break in between each group of 6 (the intervals were obviously edited out from these videos, but you can hear the applause). A lot of the challenge is psychological: one could easily get scared thinking he has to play 24 of them, while if you approach the concert as the result of 4 mini-recitals - only thinking of each successive group of 6 - it becomes way more manageable. Hope this can be interesting. I wish you the very best on the preparation and performance of Book 1! Thomas Schwan

Dear Andreas, I am deeply grateful for your message, and yes, truly delighted by your words. To know that someone feels "at home" listening to my interpretations is, to me, the highest honor and the greatest accomplishment I can imagine as an artist. So, thank you wholeheartedly for taking the time to write these words to me! Definitely some of the most precious words I have ever received, and a great gift in this moment. I wish you the very best from the bottom of my heart, and would love one day to hear some Bach performed by you on the accordion. All to the best to you! Gratefully, Thomas

Dear Klaus, thank you for your wonderful message, and I am truly happy that you are still enjoying these WTC interpretations. So you are from St. Florian? What a wonderful city and Monastery. I hope to visit sometime in the future. Thank you again and all the best to you! Thomas

Thank you for your truly kind words! All the best! Thomas

Thank you - this is deeply encouraging to me! I do have the project of recording it, not too far away in the future. I truly appreciate. All the best! Thomas

Thank you for your kind message! Personally, I think the Lehman discovery is genius. The way each convolution in the scribble precisely describes the way to tune each interval cannot be a coincidence (or, if it is, it is a miraculous occurrence). There is an ongoing debate on whether the scribble should be interpreted upside down (as Lehman did) or as it appears on the page, but that is a matter of interpretation. Peter Watchorn's fantastic recordings on the harpsichord and Penny Crawford's on the fortepiano for the label Musica Omnia have been realized with the Bach-Lehman temperament and sound incredible - I truly recommend these to get an idea. In the case of my performance here, it is simply in equal temperament and A=440 (not easy to ask for alternative tunings on modern pianos...)

@@ThomasSchwan As you say, Peter Watchorn's harpsichord recordings are truly amazing! Even with my limited pitch, I could hear the difference in those keys where the major third departs noticeably from ET( e.g. C major).

​@@georgesmelki1 Absolutely! Yes, I also feel the interpretations are incredible, with a unique balance between rigor and imagination. My personal favorite on the harpsichord. And the tuning adds that element of color and uniqueness of each key...

Truly grateful for your incredible words - I'm humbled! Thank you for listening. And yes, I also think Crochet's is a fantastic interpretation. All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you for your wonderful words and for listening! All the best to you! Thomas

Thank you, I feel deeply humbled by your words - and I am truly happy this interpretation is meaningful to you. All the best!! Thomas

Thank you for your immensely kind words!! I am happy your are still enjoying this performance!! All the best, Thomas

What a wonderful comment - I feel humbled! Thank you for your truly kind words and I am happy that this interpretation resonates with you. All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you!! All the best to you! Thomas

Thank you for your wonderful words and for listening! All the best! Thomas

@@ThomasSchwan ❤❤ just subscribed. Hope there's more videos soon!

Thank you for your truly wonderful words! Indeed, I am planning to perform these works not too far in the future. All the best! Thomas

Thank you for your truly wonderful words! Indeed, I am planning to perform these works not too far in the future. All the best! Thomas

Thank you wholeheartedly - all the best! Thomas

Thank you for your wonderful words and for listening! All the best to you! Thomas

Thank you for listening and for you kind words! All the best, Thomas

Thank you for your wonderful words and I am truly happy that this interpretation resonates with you! All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you! All the best! Thomas

Thank you for listening and your kind words, I am happy this interpretation resonates with you. All the best! Thomas

Thank you for your truly wonderful comment! All the best, with blessings! Thomas

Thank you for your interest! Unfortunately, for now, these recordings are posted only here. But I'll definitely consider sharing them to other platforms, as well. All the best, Thomas

Thank you for your kind words and for listening! All the best, Thomas

Thank you for your truly kind words! And also for your truly wonderful description of the artistic and human vitality of Chopin's music... All the best to you! Thomas

Truly grateful for your wonderful words. I am happy this performance resonates with you! All the best, with blessings, Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your kind words, I'm happy this performance resonates with you! All the best! Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your wonderful words! All the best to you! Thomas

Thank you for your truly wonderful words and I am deeply happy this interpretation resonates with you! All the best, with blessings, Thomas

@@ThomasSchwan Thank You for Your response!

Thank you for listening and for your truly kind words! I am happy this interpretation resonates with you. The concert was in a university hall and just mildly advertised - no radio announcements, social media campaigns, ads management, or anything like that. So this relatively small audience is more valuable to me than what would be a large but anonymous crowd in a "big" event, as it is a genuine expression of an existing community... Just expanding a bit on this, as this is often commented upon. Thank you again, with blessings! Thomas

In fact, there is no need to lament about the empty seats, simply because there is too often the case that in completely full audience space there is usually just as many true listeners capable indeed to percieve the outstanding character of this performance as we can see now on our screens here. Better execution of Bach's piano works I could not find anywhere by now.

@TrazomGV Dear Vanja - thank you for your words as always and great to hear from you! Will be in touch soon via email! All the best, Thomas

I am truly grateful for your wonderful words! All the best to you, with blessings, Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your wonderful words! All the best, with blessings, Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your truly kind words! All the best to you, Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your beautiful words - I am happy this interpretation resonates with you! All the best, with blessings, Thomas

Thank you for your truly kind words! All the best to you!! Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your kind words! The concert was just modestly advertised. All the best to you! Thomas

Thank you for listening and for your wonderful words - I am humbled. All the best, with blessings! Thomas