Francesco Tristano’s latest album, the third in the pianist’s “great life project” to record Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete catalogue, features the seven Toccatas, BWV 910-916. The Toccatas probably date to around 1707-1715, though no autograph manuscript has survived and their precise origins remain unknown. It is not clear if the Toccatas were written to provide training materials for his pupils, were meant to be performed as a cohesive group, or were simply studies in style. Bach – in his early 20’s but by then thoroughly immersed in the music of Northern Germany – was studying with composer Dietrich Buxtehude and became captivated by Buxtehude’s “stylus fantasticus,” a free and unrestrained compositional method. The young composer began writing more ambitious, virtuosic pieces in which the strictness of Italian and German masters like Frescobaldi, Reincken, or Froberger would be combined with a contrapuntal ingenuity far beyond the norm to form the keystone of his creativity. As with the other albums in this series, the booklet is adorned with a new series of vividly contrasting photographs by Tristano’s artistic collaborator Breno Rotatori.