...There was (and still is) no denying his incredible skill in controlling, varying and contrasting touch in clarifying textures through 'orchestration', and his eschewing all forms of overt pianism remained (and remains) a testimony to his devotion to presenting the music, as he saw it, without looking back to the harpsichord or forward to the nineteenth-century piano. As many reviewers at that time enthused, it was a remarkable achievement, yet the carefully calculated and emotionless endproduct, together with a lacing of inexplicable idiosyncrasies and the irksome vocal contribution, added up to an analytical exposition of Bach's music, rather than a human performance of it, and one that was as often quirky as it was revelatory... That it occupies only three discs may persuade some readers to invest in Gould's set, one that amazes and irritates by turns, and over which controversy will doubtless continue for a long time to come.
