Glenn Gould's opinion of Bach's keyboard toccatas was unequivocally negative. Aside from finding their fugues ''diatonically redundant'' and ''rudimentally sequential'', his principal criticism concerned the nature of the contrapuntal experience. In his view, Bach failed properly to reconcile the horizontal and vertical dimensions in these pieces. Nevertheless, Gould's performances of the toccatas show the relationship between the music's harmonic and contrapuntal material with beautiful clarity. The music's effortless flow between sections in the F sharp minor Toccata, for example, compellingly demonstrates how Gould's scrupulous precision logically directs the melodic material towards its harmonic goals.
His idiosyncratic pianistic style has been criticized for its wilful fastidiousness, but he achieves an immense wealth of textural effects through his own variety of touch and articulation. Contrast the astonishingly vivid and arresting rich orchestral effects in either the fugue from the C minor Toccata or the opening of the D major Toccata with the close concentration in slower music, such as the Adagios of the D minor and G major Toccatas.
Ultimately, though, it is Gould's improvisatory flair in pieces such as the opening of the C minor Toccata, or in the G minor Toccata in general, that most vividly demonstrates both Bach's struggle to reconcile the music's harmonic and contrapuntal dimensions and Gould's unique artistry at finding musically and intellectually satisfying solutions. The insert notes give a moving account of Gould's personal struggle with his own failing health while preparing these recordings; the latter attest to his remarkable success.'