One of the great pianists of his time, Leopold Godowsky wrote a large quantity of music, much of it calling for considerable skill in performance. Described as ‘very freely transcribed and adapted for the pianoforte’, his transcriptions of Bach’s cello suites exploit the greater technical possibilities of the piano by expanding and developing the music to create what are virtually new compositions. This is especially evident, for example, in the magnificent piano fugue that Godowsky constructs from the second part of the Prelude to Suite No. 5.