![]() ![]() There is less clarity about the history of part two. The first part of the Wohltemperirte Clavier dates from 1722, although it contains some music that was written in the preceding five years. In contrast to the iron discipline Bach had to apply to his church compositions, here he could abandon himself to intellectual Spielerei without worrying about deadlines. In the preludes, he gave free rein to his imagination, and demonstrated mathematical tours de force in the fugues. In each of the two parts of the Wohltemperirte Clavier, he brought together the musical couple prelude and fugue 24 times twelve in minor keys and twelve in major. For this second part, performed in its entirety by Christine Schornsheim, we chose 12 very different locations in Utrecht, to celebrate the 900th anniversary of our home city.Ĭomposing 48 keyboard pieces in all 24 keys was the sort of challenge Bach enjoyed. We recorded Bach’s first book of Preludes and Fugues in all the keys at the homes of 24 different musicians. So there’s a lot to mull over, and Bach must have thought so too, as in between all these complex arrangements of the thematic material he inserted relaxing ‘episodes’ – short sections where the music is freed up for a moment, so that player and listener can muster courage for the grand sequel. As if all that wasn’t enough, just listen to the lines full of half intervals that snake through the musical web. Each appear in their own exposition and in separate stretti, and they are later also used inversus – upside down. On the long journey to that climax, the path is cleared for both the theme and the countertheme. Suddenly, the movement is only half as busy, and along with the calmness you sense a restrained tension. The most striking stretto comes in the closing phase, when Bach pairs off the four parts and juxtaposes two against two. As this does not work for every fugue subject (usually such an overlap would lead to messy clashes), Bach puzzled out a theme-in-blocks, filled with intriguing leaps and tense pauses. The fugue explores all the variations of the stretto technique – whereby two or more parts do not politely wait their turn, but interrupt one another, as it were. Surprisingly enough, for once the soprano does not enter with the theme, but provides ornamentation, directly over the exposition in the alto. Above this root, the two upper parts exchange ideas to their heart’s content, particularly in the middle section. The supporting continuo part only gets to play the full five-bar theme twice. The prelude feels almost like a trio sonata, due to the role of the bass. It is even viewed by some as the highlight of the whole second Wohltemperirte Clavier: Bach’s most substantial three-part sinfonia as the prelude, followed by an overwhelming fugue on a productive theme. And this pair of works in B-flat minor, a ‘difficult’ key with five flats, digs very deep. Sometimes Bach keeps it light, but now and then he goes all out for heavy.
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