The German harpsichordist and musicologist, Hans Pischner, studied piano and harpsichord with Bronislaw von Pozniak and G Wertheim, as well as musicology, at the University of Breslau.

From 1933 to 1939 Hans Pischner was active as a music teacher and concert soloist. After the war service and Soviet prison, from 1946 he started to serve at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, whose deputy director he became he 1947. In 1948 he was appointed as professor. From 1950 to 1954 he operated as the head of directors of the national committee for the GDR broadcasting service.

He later went to the Ministry of Culture, first from 1954 to 1956 as a chief director of the music department, and from 1956 to 63 as deputy Culture Minister under Johannes R Becher. From 1963 to 1984 Hans Pischner was director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. From 1978 to 1990 he led the culture federation of the GDR as President. In addition he was a chairman of the all‐German Neuen Bachgesellschaft seated in Leipzig, and vice‐president of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) of the GDR.

Apart from his formal commitments, Hans Pischner has always found the time for playing the harpsichord in public, in concerts and in numerous recordings.

The LP recordings of Hans Pischner ‐ boxed together here for the first time on CD ‐ were produced over a period of some two decades. As a state‐run body, Eterna was fortunate over the years not to be constrained by any serious staff shortages, scarcity of financial resources or lack of cultural venues, so that it was able to realize a host of long‐term projects.

Except for the Toccatas, the English and French Suites and the Partitas BWV825‐30 of Clavier‐Übung I, all Johann Sebastian Bach’s major works for solo clavier are presented.