As with Vol 4 of Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach series (A/23), this new disc was recorded in Grauhof’s Stiftskirche St Georg, which houses a three-manual Christoph Treutmann organ dating from 1737. Suzuki gets straight down to business, launching into a sparkling rendition of the Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV532, making light work of its fearsome pedal runs and judging perfectly the speed and mood changes throughout its Buxtehudian sectional form.

The meaty filling on this recording is the selection of chorale arrangements from the Orgelbüchlein, beginning with seven chorales intended for Easter and Pentecost. All of Suzuki’s hallmarks are on display here: complete technical assurance and precision enhanced by a satisfying serving of rhetorical gestures, even in such tiny movements as Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ (BWV628) and Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist (BWV631), which captures perfectly that element of Thuringian pomposity which Bach allows from time to time.

The modestly proportioned Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV545, strides along sturdily, allowing the air to clear before we embark on the final substantial sequence of 13 chorales (Pentecostal, Catechismic and miscellaneous). The consoling supplication of both Liebster Jesu treatments (BWV633 and 634, with a deliciously languid tremulant) brings much welcome respite and I enjoyed Suzuki’s unhurried nurturing of the twists and turns in the tonally ambivalent setting of Durch Adams Fall (BWV637). In the same vein, Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV639) is almost too beautiful and moving, despite occasional action thumps from the venerable organ. Lightness is restored in the tiny but sparkling Ach wie nichtig (BWV644).

To round things off there is a bracing performance of the monumental Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV544. Perhaps the Prelude could have been a shade slower; there is a very slight tendency for the chosen tempo to blur the semiquaver figuration in this lofty and spacious acoustic. All in all, though, this is a solid and satisfying Bach-fest, beautifully recorded and presented.