Wanda Landowska

A flamboyant piece, a dazzling artist, and an extravagant harpsichord. Landowska believed there was no ‘progress’ in art, and we are indebted. Timeless.

Pleiad of instruments, exploring, and re-arranging…

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Robert Hill

The last of the 3-movement work (after Prelude & Fugue), according to manuscript intended “for lute or harpsichord”. This recording uses a rare lute-harpsichord (Lautenwerck), usually featuring gut strings and mellow sound. Bach owned two, but none survived.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

Bach’s works have influenced future generations. Mozart (born #otd 1756) arranged some of his fugues from The Well Tempered Clavier (for string quartets) and preceded them with new preludes inspired by Bach’s originals.

Fretwork

“Cabbage and turnip drove me away”, one of German folk tunes woven into this magnificent piece. Playing Quodlibets, light-hearted improvisations upon various melodies, was a happy occasion for Bach’s family, filled with good humour and music.

Ashley Solomon, Terence Charlston

Spectacular, acrobatic & emotional. The intensity of affect in this last movement of the sonata seems demands utmost agility from both the flautist & harpsichord.

Kim Kashkashian

Bach knew how to write beautiful viola parts, rich & independent (unlike some other popular composers who used them to fill the harmony). This Prelude arranged for viola brings a metaphysical experience, with a heartbeat of the deep bass notes, and immense space.

Kenneth Gilbert, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Nicholas Kraemer, Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert

Glorious glitter, the hypnotic sound of four harpsichords meandering through harmonic sequences. Bach The Extravagant (borrowing from Vivaldi).

Bach, the father of Jazz, and celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.

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Go to summary: https://bach.club/dailybach-week3/

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman

„In the future there is strife and victory, In the past there is strife and splendour.” Written as a birthday piece for the Royal House of Anhalt-Köthen, this ‘serenata’ was premiered on the New Year 1719. Tomorrow it’s the first day of the Chinese New Year, the year of the Rabbit.

Solomon’s Knot

In this sparkling, live performance, Solomon’s Knot present the piece in their signature chamber setting. Bach, a word-painter, starts the last movement with the powerful “glory” contrasted with the voices rising from our lowly Earth to Heaven. He then re-introduces the musical material of the 1st movement, literally referring to “as it was in the beginning”. The final brushstroke is when the vocal parts unite in an extensively long note: to mark the Glory lasting “throughout ages and ages.”

Marie-Claire Alain

Laconic, yet lush. So much imagination shines through this masterpiece, a ground bass repeated with obsession, as if infinitely. Bach’s might be the ultimate passacaglia, least because it’s far from the usual descending 4-note motif.

Richard Tognetti, Neal Peres Da Costa

Obbligato harpsichord part sounds superbly intimate on chamber organ, and this 2nd of the violin sonatas gains a new, slightly archaic, but also cozy, domestic dimension. Some warmth, very welcome during this cold snap in London, from the musicians of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Wynton Marsalis
English Chamber Orchestra

It’s a little known fact that Bach was a precursor of jazz. Well, no. But he was writing walking bass lines all the time, and figured bass is an improvisation upon harmony drafted in numbers. Not a big surprise then to have the director of Jazz at Lincoln Center play a Brandenburg Concerto.

André Isoir

“Lord, hear the voice of my complaint” from the Little Organ Book, with deep meaning and emotion. A walking bass-line and a 16c. chorale melody (from Johannes Agricola) are peaceful, but the middle voice meanders anxiously, sometimes with uncomfortable leaps – this is call full of hope out of anguish. This tenor line has a traditional viol-like texture, referencing an old instrumental tradition (that Bach also used in St John’s Passion).

A 16th century tune making its way, through Bach, to 21st century, enchanting colours of different instruments, and lively, dancing energy
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Go to summary: https://bach.club/dailybach-week2/

Mario Brunello, Accademia dell’Annunciata dir. Riccardo Doni

Bach transcribed often. He re-used his own works, and frequently borrowed from other composers. Yesterday we heard a reconstruction of one of his works, and today a beguiling re-imagining of another: Harpsichord Concerto (based on an oboe one by Alessandro Marcello) played on a piccolo cello. Bach’s approach lives on.

Cecilia & Alfredo Bernardini, Dunedin Consort

A family dance, with father and daughter dialoguing while the whole ensemble, directed by John Butt, engages in a lively, and seemingly effortless, pas de bourrée. And a convincingly reconstructed Bach’s piece preserved today as a Concerto for 2 Harpsichords.

Evangelina Mascardi

Recorded with such detail that you can hear the fingers touching the strings of the lute, this is a very intimate Bach. A beautifully personal master of the fugue.

Władysław Kłosiewicz

A showcase of the harpsichord’s myriad colours and sonorities – to pick one variation is daunting. Here is one with an illusion of a “spatial” sound, and a rare use of the true lute stop (not to be confused with buff!).

Dominik Wörner, Jean-François Madeuf, Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

Bach wrote this dramma per musica for the birthday of Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland and Electress of Saxony (1733). A year later he re-used lots of music in his Christmas Oratorio.

Today would be my mother’s birthday, so “Crown and praise of crowned ladies, Queen! with your name I shall fill the whole world.”

Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, Fritz Werner

This recording from 1960 brings us back more than one generation. The cantata, first performed on 6 January 1724, was composed for Epiphany (this year it was last Friday). The tune (that Bach used on a few other occasions) dates even further back, to a French chanson from 1529 by Claudin de Sermisy. We are listening to it now, in 21st century – wondrous.

From The Well Tempered viols, to the organ chirping like a bird.
– bookmark this page, and follow @bachdotclub for more inspiration.

Go to summary: https://bach.club/dailybach-week1/

Phantasm

Laurence Dreyfus arranged Bach’s keyboard piece for his consort of viols, in a freshly released (2023) single promising a wonderful new album, already 3rd in a series of Well Tempered Consort. We can’t wait!

András Schiff

Oh the clavichord… you won’t hear it if a loud car passes by your window, but let your ears focus and you will discover so much expression. Not only as it’s the only keyboard instrument allowing the player to vibrate the notes.
Duetto for one? That’s ‘bicinium’, with two hands having a dialogue.

Jörg Halubek

Can you hear the birds chirping? While it’s unlikely that they nested inside the organ, this fascinating instrument can imitate some natural sounds. It can also have stops designed to inspire awe and amazement, e.g. turning stars, or wing flapping eagles.

Nancy Argenta, Diego Fasolis, Guillemette Laurens, I Barocchisti

Giovanni Batista Draghi (“Pergolesi”) was born on this day 4 Jan 1710. Bach, notorious borrower, took his famous “Stabat Mater” and rearranged it to the text of Psalm 51, adding a beautiful viola part. With that velvety richness the piece gained a new depth and impact.

We also recommend a recording of this piece by The Bach Players (“Bach Arranging and Arranged”) – not available on streaming platforms but worth exploring!

Emma Kirkby & Liza Beznosiuk, with Academy of Ancient Music dir. by Christopher Hogwood

After the New Year’s celebration it’s first day back at work so… coffee anyone? Bach definitely wanted one and he was known to frequent Cafe Zimmerman (Zimmermannsches Kaffeehaus) in Leipzig that also became a scene for his Coffee Cantata.

In this aria the girl would prefer her coffee to muscat wine, or to a thousand kisses 😘 … “ah!, just give me some coffee!”.

Glenn Gould

A “Prelude” is filled with anticipation… What will come next? This energetic work is full of optimism!

Les Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall

“Ouverture” means an opening so what better way to start a year than with this Bach’s glorious piece? Full of energy, and the sparkling fireworks of the trumpets – an instrument Bach reserved only for special occasions – it is a beautiful movement, and a fitting start of a new, hopeful journey.