In Bach and Beyond, her second recording for EMI Classics, Gabriela Montero lends her remarkable improvisational skills to the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Sheep May Safely Graze, Air on a G String and themes from the Italian Concerto, Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg Concertos, from an invention, toccata and keyboard concerto are the bases upon which Montero weaves intricately formed "spontaneous compositions" in a wide variety of musical styles.
Following her enthusiastically received debut disc for EMI, a full Rachmaninov, Chopin and Liszt recital and a bonus disc of improvisations, BBC Music Magazine described Montero as "a ferocious young talent" and stated that, "no matter how jaw-dropping her miraculously clean-fingered negotiation of such as Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, it's what happens between the notes, the way she grippingly characterizes everything she plays, that constantly arrests the listener's attention… Not since George Cziffra's hey-day have such white-hot, volcanic eruptions of pianistic derring-do been captured on disc."