The Art of Prelude and Fugue Part I November 19
Chan Shun Concert Hall at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts | Map
Angela Hewitt
Angela Hewitt has made Bach'southward music the cornerstone of her bright, exuberant artistry. Join u.s.a. as she continues the second season of her remarkable 4-twelvemonth journey through all of Bach's keyboard works. In this concert she plays Bach's 24 preludes and fugues fromThe Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
"The outstanding Bach pianist of her generation" (The Sunday Times, London)
Please bring together us at 6:30PM for a pre-concert chat with Angela Hewitt and Ian Alexander.
This concert is generously supported by Dr. Katherine Eastward. Paton
To download/view the programme page and notes, click here.
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)
Well Tempered Clavier – Book I
BWV 846-869 (1722)
No. 1: Prelude and Fugue in C major, BwV 846
No. 2: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BwV 847
No. three: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp major, BwV 848
No. 4: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp pocket-size, BwV 849
No. 5: Prelude and Fugue in D major, BwV 850
No. 6: Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BwV 851
No. 7: Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BwV 852
No. viii: Prelude and Fugue in E flat pocket-sized, BwV 853
No. 9: Prelude and Fugue in E major, BwV 854
No. 10: Prelude and Fugue in E pocket-sized, BwV 855
No. 11: Prelude and Fugue in F major, BwV 856
No. 12: Prelude and Fugue in F small-scale, BwV 857
INTERVAL
No. 13: Prelude and Fugue in F sharp major, BwV 858
No. xiv: Prelude and Fugue in F abrupt minor, BwV 859
No. 15: Prelude and Fugue in G major, BwV 860
No. 16: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BwV 861
No. 17: Prelude and Fugue in A flat major, BwV 862
No. eighteen: Prelude and Fugue in One thousand sharp minor, BwV 863
No. 19: Prelude and Fugue in A major, BwV 864
Program Notes
The six years that Johann Sebastian Bach spent as Capellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt- Cöthen (1717–23) were some of the happiest of his life. The young prince (just twenty-three years onetime in 1717) was a viola da gamba player of slap-up skill and had an 18-slice orchestra of fantabulous quotient. Bach was delighted to piece of work for someone who both "loved and understood music." On taking up his new duties, Bach relinquished the limerick of organ and choral music that had occupied him previously in Weimar. Only a few cantatas were composed to gloat royal birthdays and special occasions. Cöthen was in Saxony where Calvinism predominated at the time, and there was little music in the local churches (with the exception of the Lutheran Agnuskirche where Bach worshipped and went to practice the organ). He was now expected to produce secular instrumental music, and he did so, equally was his custom, with bully energy and all his heart and soul. From the Cöthen period engagement the Brandenburg Concertos, the 4 orchestral Suites, the Partitas, Suites, and Sonatas for solo and accompanied violin and cello, and the French Suites for keyboard. Bach and the prince became shut friends, and he oftentimes accompanied the prince on his journeys. Upon returning from a trip to Karlsbad in 1720, Bach was confounded by the news that his wife, Maria Barbara, had died and was already buried. With four children ranging from the age of 5 to twelve to bring up, he could not remain a widower for long, and within a year had married Anna Magdalena Wilcke (other spellings of her name being Wilcken, Wölcken, Wülcke, or Wülcken), sixteen years his junior and a fine soprano. Their marriage was celebrated on Dec 3, 1721, with four barrels and thirtytwo carafes of vino — nearly a hundred liters!
As his duties at court were not totally time-consuming, Bach was able to devote himself to the musical didactics of his family. In 1720, when his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann was nine years old, he presented him with a notebook in which they began to compile pieces that comprise, among other things, get-go drafts of what we know today as the Piffling Preludes, the 2- and 3-Part Inventions, and eleven of the first twelve Preludes from The Well-Tempered Clavier. It was always Bach'south aim to develop musical intelligence from the very starting time, along with technique— something which is oftentimes overlooked today. Many of the pieces in the Clavierbüchlein are in Wilhelm Friedemann'southward own manus, every bit he was undoubtedly learning how to compose.
Information technology is impossible to requite verbal dates of composition of many of Bach's works, as they were frequently compiled from already-existing fabric. In the example of The Well- Tempered Clavier Book I, Bach wrote the appointment 1722 on the title page of the fair re-create:
"The Well-Tempered Clavier or Preludes and Fugues through all the tones and semitones including those with a major third or Ut Re Mi equally well as those with a minor third or Re Mi Fa. For the profit and employ of musical youth desirous of learning and peculiarly for the pastime of those already skilled in this study composed and prepared past Johann Sebastian Bach at nowadays Capellmeister to His Serene Highness the Prince of Anhalt- Cöthen, and director of His Chamber Music. Anno 1722".
To satisfactorily explain the adjective well-tempered is to tread on dangerous basis. Treatises have been written on the discipline, and even today the contend continues. Tuning a keyboard instrument always has to be a compromise, because the intervals of a perfect 5th and a perfect third are incompatible with each other and with a pure octave. In Bach'southward day, the common practise was to use the mean tone system, which retained the purity and sweetness of the major third. This meant, however, that it was impossible to play in all twenty-iv keys because of "errors" that would occur in the more than remote ones. As musicians became more and more dissatisfied with these restrictions, they turned to equal temperament which favors the interval of a perfect 5th, and which makes each primal tolerable (although inevitably one tin can argue that much is lost by making everything uniform, especially as regards the graphic symbol of each key). In between these ii systems there tin be many modifications, and information technology is idea that Bach must have used his own method of tuning. The only, rather vague, testimony we have on the discipline comes from his obituary, written by his son C.P.E. Bach and his educatee J.F. Agricola, where information technology states that: "In the tuning of harpsichords he achieved so correct and pure a temperament that all the keys sounded pure and agreeable. He knew no keys which, because of impure intonation, one must avoid."
In 1715 Johann Caspar Fischer had composed a set of preludes and fugues in 20 different keys called Ariadne Musica . Iv years later, Johann Mattheson wrote a user's manual in figured-bass playing that gave two examples in each of the twenty-four keys. It was left to Bach, nonetheless, to give us the showtime real music in keys like C-sharp Major and Eastward-flat minor. Twenty-two years later on, in 1744, he compiled another twenty-four preludes and fugues to complete what is at present known as the "48." It is an inexhaustible treasure trove of the greatest possible music, combining contrapuntal wizardry with his immense gift for expressing human emotion in all its forms. Bach amazes united states of america by admittedly never running out of steam. In The Well- Tempered Clavier, nosotros find a piece to conform every mood and every occasion.
In Bach's time the word clavier did not denote any keyboard instrument in item, only meant harpsichord, clavichord, spinet, virginal, or even the organ. An inventory taken at the time of his death lists many different instruments, but gives no details beyond their size and value. Bach reportedly preferred the clavichord for its power to produce shadings and fifty-fifty vibrato, although surely its extreme delicacy must take made anything merely the quietest pieces rather frustrating. Perhaps for this reason, Bach'south friend, the groovy organ and harpsichord builder Gottfried Silbermann, prepare about working on a fortepiano (following the get-go endeavor at one past Cristofori), which Bach tried before his death. It is said that he found it interesting, but weak in the high register and likewise hard to play (complaints often voiced by pianists today about some modern grands!). His music requires nifty sprightliness, clarity, rapidity, warmth, forcefulness, and subtle shadings that have to be matched by both instrument and player. If Bach'due south music sounds "wrong" on the pianoforte, and so surely most of the blame must prevarication with the pianist. The musical instrument itself is, I find, platonic, as it can exist made to sing and dance every bit Bach demands. The difficulty is in making it sound easy.
The Prelude No. one in C Major of Book I has become one of the near famous pieces of music e'er written. Mayhap because of its utter simplicity, people feel they have to exercise something with it — to translate it. The biggest culprit was Gounod who wrote his Ave Maria by adding a sugary tune above the broken arpeggios — something that has fatally distorted our perception of this simple study in line. What seems easy on paper, though, is extremely difficult to play (as anyone who has attempted this piece knows). An even tone, a perfect legato without the utilise of pedal, a steady pulse, an awareness of harmony and how, for instance, a diminished-7th chord can add intensity — all of these things tin can be learned here. To that is added Bach's sense of inner peace for which we also must strive. The four-voice Fugue in C Major is very affirmative, using the device of stretto (introducing the subject in another vocalization before the concluding archway is finished) to cumulative effect. The technical difficulties of playing this Fugue are so much more advanced than those of the Prelude that many a student will surrender in despair!
Prelude No. 2 in C minor tin hands sound harsh and ugly. Although information technology is certainly a decorated piece, the touch must remain buoyant, and the harmonic outline interesting. The cadenza at the end should sound improvised without losing its way. The decisiveness of the ending in the major mode is carried over into the three-vox Fugue. Articulation is important hither: to distinguish the subject from the two countersubjects, you often have to play both legato and detached with the same paw simultaneously. This is ane of the hardest things for a student to exercise, simply absolutely necessary in Bach if the unlike voices are to be distinguishable.
With the inflow of the Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-abrupt Major we have a marvelous change in
color. We also have the beginning of the Preludes that is actually trip the light fantastic toe-like. Lightening the quaver at the end of the bar will give it that actress swing. So Bach ties that tertiary beat over the bar which, for contrast, gives it an accent. Halfway through the Prelude, he changes from double counterpoint to cleaved arpeggios, which build up to the brilliant ending. The Fugue continues in the same joyful mood with a subject field that skips near in sixths. For a very large hand this tin be a clumsy piece, as the proliferation of sharps means you are generally playing betwixt the black and white keys (even clumsier on the harpsichord where the keys are narrower). All the same, it needs to sound as though you're having fun. Bach certainly enjoyed writing something challenging in this new primal!
I like to call up of the Preludes and Fugues falling into groups of 4, and prefer to present them that way in concert (unless I am doing a complete bicycle). Considered in this fashion, each first Prelude seems to have an arresting commencement, and each terminal Fugue is of considerable dimension and emotional ability (the possible exception being the G small Fugue, only even here a definite conclusion is reached). The terminal Prelude and Fugue of the kickoff group, No. 4 in C-abrupt minor, is undoubtedly one of the greatest of the "48." The Prelude is in fact a loure — a French theatrical trip the light fantastic toe related to the French gigue but much more languid. The other fine instance in Bach's keyboard music is in the fifth French Suite: information technology is expressive but non sentimental. In the original version of the Clavierbüchlein , no ornaments were added, just in later revisions many appeared. The interpreter should feel free to decorate along the aforementioned lines. The commencement of the Fugue immediately announces something special. The subject contains only four notes that, when placed together on the staff, form the outline of a cross lying on its side. Such a subject field, in Bach's hands, will inevitably produce an emotionally powerful piece of work. This is the showtime of two five voice fugues in Book I, and the first is written in stile antico (the Baroque adaptation of Renaissance polyphony in iv or more parts). The commencement x entries of the subject field are not accompanied past any definable countersubject — solely a descending figure in crotchets that is likewise inverted. The mood is one of solemn introspection. After a cadence in the relative major (E), Bach introduces the first of two countersubjects — this one in quavers, which begins to awaken u.s.a. from our meditation. It drifts in, appearing get-go in the upper voice. 14 bars later the second countersubject announces itself, characterized by a supplicating repetition of the second annotation. From and so on the whole Fugue is built around these three subjects, culminating in an intense racket over a pedal point, four bars from the end. So the tension speedily dissolves and Bach ends with a cadency in the major primal (chosen tierce de Picardie ) — with the pedal point withal resonating. These terminal bars are non always played softly, but Czerny tells us that Beethoven (who played most of the "48" by the time he was xi years old) interpreted it this way. Surely the emotion expressed hither is forgiveness and does not need to exist forced. We return to lightheartedness with Prelude and Fugue No. five in D Major. The affect must be light, otherwise your right arm volition seize up before the stop of the Prelude! The left hand can brand information technology dance. Bach ends with a flourish and ii dramatic rests requiring an appropriate gesture. The Fugue is in French Overture fashion, necessitating some double-dotting (belongings notes for longer than their notated value). Halfway through, Bach begins to employ merely the opening, swirling office of the subject, tossing it effectually from voice to vox. The joyful, ceremonial chords at the end are more constructive if an extra octave is added to the bass line.
The whole character of Prelude No. 6 in D modest depends on how y'all play the commencement 2 repeated Ds in the left hand. They give the pulse and set things going, ready for the right mitt to enter with its cleaved chords. In these, it is necessary to find the notes that move (rather than the ones that remain stable) and bring out their line. The left paw becomes increasingly melodic, the right hand breaks loose in a series of descending diminished-7th chords, and the Prelude ends defiantly. Later this, the Fugue can seem a niggling sober, but its singing style gives united states of america some tender moments. The field of study, which has a rhetorical intermission, the phrasing of which is originally by Bach, is the first one in the "48" to be inverted (turned upside downward).
The most substantial Prelude in Book I is No. 7 in Eastward-apartment Major — the only 1 of the starting time twelve not to accept been included in Wilhelm Friedemann'southward notebook. It is in three parts: a preamble which improvises around a pattern of semiquavers, a chorale-like fugato introducing a subject area that rises in fourths, and a double fugue combining these two musical ideas. I call back it is important to observe a mutual pulse for these three sections and then that Bach'southward counterpoint can flower naturally. This is one of the most hard Preludes for fingering and clarity of texture. The whole thing must build upwardly to the wonderful pedal point at the stop (this Prelude reminds me of the "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue for organ, BWV 552 — also in E-flat Major). Later on such a serious-minded Prelude, Bach surprises the states with a wonderfully witty three-voice Fugue. The chromaticisms we find in the descent into C small-scale (bars15–17), are echoed, teasingly, in the last bar.
And then, without alarm, we are immediately in some other world, and in the key of E-apartment minor. A feeling of solitude permeates Prelude No. 8, which is one of the virtually moving moments in the "48." The tempo is that of a dull Sarabande — dignified and noble. It is an impassioned aria of great eloquence. The deceptive cadence in bar 29 is peculiarly poignant (and for a fleeting moment may make united states think of the aforementioned progression in Chopin'due south "Raindrop" Prelude). The unproblematic beauty of the Fugue discipline comes to us from far away, without breaking the mood set by the Prelude. 1 by i the three voices enter, without giving us whatever definite countersubject. In fact, Bach becomes rather obsessed with the subject, giving it several unlike treatments. In bar 19 we take the first stretto — a very close overlap between the middle and treble voices, only two beats apart. In bar 24 we have some other, but with the heart vocalisation in a slightly augmented course using a dotted rhythm. Half dozen confined later on, after yet another stretto , we hear the field of study turned upside down for the kickoff time. This passage culminates in the stiff bass entry in bar 44. The overlapping continues unabated, and brings united states to a halfclose in bar 61. Then we accept the beginning fully augmented entry of the subject area, given to the bass. Before information technology is finished, we volition hear the original form in the centre voice, and the inverted 1 in the treble. The augmented version is and so sung past each vocalisation in turn, finishing with the treble (bar 77). This is a wonderful moment where, for me, time seems suspended. We think Bach is going to end with a descent to the concluding chord, but instead he surprises u.s.a. and rises to the major cardinal. I feel it is his way of expressing hope in the Eternal, rather than despair. This Fugue is notated in D-sharp minor (the enharmonic key of East-flat minor), probably because information technology was originally written in D pocket-sized before its inclusion in The Well- Tempered Clavier. Some editions print information technology, however, in E-flat minor. Neither key is easy to read (six sharps or flats), and in this instance I don't feel that it matters which key you learn it in (personally, I become for E-flat small). With the case of its counterpart in Volume II, I do feel that it should be "felt" in D-abrupt minor, although if I had to explicate why, I'm not sure that I could! The important thing is to make this slice expressive, and non have it sound like a study in fugal construction.
The Well-Tempered Clavier was never intended to exist performed as a bike of pieces in the fashion of, for case, the "Goldberg" Variations. The i piece of evidence we have that it was performed at all in Bach'due south day comes from the son of 1 of his students, Gerber, who wrote:
"At the first lesson he set his Inventions before him. When he had studied these through to Bach's satisfaction, there followed a series of suites, and then the Well-Tempered Clavier. This latter piece of work Bach played altogether iii times through for him with his unmatchable fine art, and my male parent counted these amid his happiest hours, when Bach, under the pretext of not feeling in the mood to teach, sat himself at one of his fine instruments and thus turned these hours into minutes."
There is no real reason why we cannot mix them up and play them out of order (as long as nosotros practise non do what Busoni did, and exchange some Fugues for others when he felt they were sick matched!). I am always amazed, even so, at how Bach has the knack of irresolute mood and so quickly, all the same so finer. This is the case with Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in Eastward Major. The grace, charm, and good nature of the Prelude completely dispel the melancholy of the previous work. It is a pastorale , and was in one case fastened to the sixth French Suite in E Major (it is establish in a copy of the Suite made by the in a higher place-mentioned Gerber). The Fugue makes me call back of iii village gossips chattering away at once. Right upward to the end they are each trying to get a discussion in (with Bach using just the opening two notes of the subject past that signal!).
The fundamental of E minor brings us some arresting music. Prelude No. 10, in the original version in the Clavierbüchlein , was fabricated up of chords only — solid in the right hand, broken in the left. There was no haunting melody. That was added later — as was the Presto that forms the second part. By adding these things, Bach turns it into an orchestral piece — i can imagine an oboe solo, accompanied past strings and continuo. For a pianist, the challenge is to brand information technology sound Baroque, and not like Chopin. The Presto (a rare tempo marking in Bach'southward own hand) is built, like the opening, on a descending bass line, and leads the states brilliantly into the only two-voice Fugue in the "48." Information technology is amazing how much energy is to be found in so thin a texture! Bach has fun with a hemiola (switching from 3 to two accents in a bar), and flagrantly breaks the rules by writing, for two brief moments, in consecutive octaves. There is much sense of humor in his brilliance.
Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F Major should not be approached before the pupil has mastered the 2 Part Invention in A Major. It is and then similar to the Prelude and has the same difficulty fabricated slightly easier: playing long trills evenly in one hand while the other is simultaneously dealing with a lot of semiquavers. Both share the same trip the light fantastic toe-like time signature of 12/viii. The Fugue is a passepied (we find another example of this trip the light fantastic toe in the fifth Partita). It is probably the easiest of the Fugues in Volume I — though none is like shooting fish in a barrel.
No. 12 in F minor makes an appropriate end to the outset half. Hither the Prelude is an allemande (without the characteristic upbeat) in which the note values are precisely indicated to obtain a perfect legato and a rich contrapuntal texture. It is expressive but flowing, and has the processional character of that trip the light fantastic. The Fugue subject has forcefulness, dignity, and solemnity. Its combination of chromaticisms and expressive intervals give it groovy intensity. It is written in quadruplecounterpoint (subject area with three countersubjects), and at times is very difficult for the actor to untangle. The episodes (which requite relief from field of study entries, and instead accept gratis counterpoint using a motive or two from material already presented) add a feeling of tenderness. The highlight of the Fugue, for me, is when the alto enters with the subject in the relative major cardinal (A-apartment) in bar 34. Information technology is like a voice from afar. Bach notwithstanding ends this Fugue firmly on the ground, with the final entry of the subject field ringing out in the bass.
The second half of Volume I opens with a perfectly matched Prelude and Fugue in the vivid key of F-sharp Major. Prelude No. thirteen is a ii-part invention where syncopations produce continuous suspensions. Some modulations into minor keys bring a few dark tones to what is otherwise a fresh and airy piece. The Fugue continues in the same mood. In the first episode (bar 7), Bach introduces a new motive, which later develops into a second countersubject. This theme gives the Fugue a touch on of gentleness, and Bach decides to terminate the slice by having it appear in each of the 3 voices, in turn.
Prelude No. 14 in F-sharp minor is springy and energetic, with much imitation going on between the voices. The seemingly ordinary tenor part in the first bar (quavers, punctuated by rests) takes on a far greater role halfway through — when Bach turns it into chords. The lyrical four-part Fugue is of an unusual beauty. Its subject creeps from F-sharp upwards to C-precipitous using a devious, chromatic route, before descending back to the tonic. The countersubject is based on a sighing, two-note figure that gives the slice its sorrowful character. The subject appears twice, inverted: in the alto in bar 20, and in the bass in bar 32. The climax is reached with the bass entry in bar 29, after which it calms downward to the final reiteration that ends the piece — this time in the major key.
The Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in Thousand Major, which shares the same blithesome spirit as the ii Brandenburg Concertos in that key, gives the actor an opportunity to show off. The Prelude has two fourth dimension signatures: 24/16 for the right hand, and 4/4 for the left hand. Is that merely to betoken that all semiquavers are triplets, or to warn u.s. against going besides fast? Information technology certainly has to have bounce. Bach has several tricks up his sleeve for this virtuoso Fugue. The subject, which centers on a written-out turn, does not take long to announced upside downwards; neither does the countersubject. And so he decides to omit its second bar totally, making it more concise (bar 51), and to allow a stretto . Despite all the notes, the Fugue should remain graceful and playful, and reach its conclusion triumphantly over the pedal indicate in the bass.
The trill that opens Prelude No. 16 in K small-scale would certainly be easier to execute on the violin or a woodwind instrument — on the keyboard it is non easy to coordinate with the left hand (and is fifty-fifty more difficult to practise when the parts are switched). This trill should have direction and become somewhere — either build to the following bar, or have a swell in the centre — anything but remain static. This is a cogitating piece, with a particularly beautiful concluding line. The Fugue is i of those pieces by Bach that can sound equally disarming played in ii completely contrasting ways: either quite slowly and solemnly with a legato touch, or more upbeat with a perky tempo and distinct articulations. Having tried both, I opted for the latter. Landowska spoke of it as expressing torment and grief; Tovey marked itMaestoso . I hear the subject field played past a bassoon, and constitute that in the more than alert tempo, Bach's counterpoint became and then much clearer (things can become a little crowded during the stretto in bars 15–18). A pocket-size cardinal in Bach by no means denotes something solemn, every bit any of the dance suites in pocket-sized mode demonstrate. The last, conclusive entry of the subject in the tenor abruptly ends the Fugue on the major third.
Prelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flat Major opens with one of the most attractive Preludes in Book I. The rhythmic motif which appears in thirty-7 of the xl-four confined is ane that Bach oft used to denote joy (I immediately think of the first variation of the "Goldberg" variations). The mood is very dancelike and poised. The four-part Fugue has a beautiful shape; in the German-speaking world information technology is given the championship "Cathedral" Fugue. The lyrical field of study, which is simply ii broken three-note chords landing on the dominant is perfectly woven into the texture, acquiring different shades in different registers. On the technical side, it is a difficult study in legato fingering.
Prelude No. 18 in G-sharp minor is a gently swinging 3-part invention using the opening melodic fragment in every vocalism and in about every bar — sometimes shortened, and often inverted. It is especially expressive when it reaches the loftier A in bar 18. The Fugue subject is angular and stubborn, with its repeated notes at the stop, but they, along with the punctuated quavers (later chords) of the countersubject give it management and bite. The texture lightens up a flake before coming to a passage very hard to play clearly (bars 32–33). The piece ends with the same four notes in the same position as the A-flat Major Fugue, only in a totally different mood.
Prelude and Fugue No. 19 in A Major is a special case. The Prelude is innocent enough, although the three voices are really engaged in a strict mini-fugue (fughetta ). With the Fugue, nonetheless, we have 1 of the nigh extraordinarily quirky pieces past Bach that is also fiendishly difficult to play. The subject begins with an exclamation (maybe "Hey!" or "Ouch!"), then proceeds to jump up in fourths. Once the three voices get going, nosotros take numerous crossrhythms and suspensions that have to be brought out independently, no affair how awkward it is to exercise and so with only two hands. It would be much easier to have this Fugue played by a cord trio! Then, to further challenge the actor and add to the excitement, Bach introduces runs in semiquavers to accompany the zigzagging subject. It is important to retain the mood of playfulness and stay calm! Tovey suggests picking a tempo which is "not unplayable or unenjoyable subsequently reasonable practice." Hubert Parry, in his biography of Bach (published in 1909), described this Fugue equally "arbitrary and willful, but non attractive" and deemed it a "comparative failure." If Beethoven did indeed play most of the "48," I can run into him delighting peculiarly in this wonderfully crazy piece.
Prelude No. 20 in A minor is in ix/8, just similar the previous Fugue, yet should sound totally contrasting. The harmonies do not move a lot within each bar (many bars stay on the aforementioned chord), so a lively tempo seems appropriate, and it begins rather nervously with those written-out trills in the left hand. The Prelude is short, which is a good thing, considering the Fugue is very long. Many people criticize the latter for this reason, saying that it is too bookish and deadening. I never tire of its marvelous field of study and the multiple stretti (also using the inversion) which take us on a journeying through many keys. It is a showpiece, not for the performer'due south virtuosity, merely for Bach's. The tempo is linked to its character, which refuses to be hurried (and to the need for clarity in the partplaying). There is a marvel at the end: Bach writes a pedal point, to be held underneath the four voices, that is unplayable with but two hands. Did he write this Fugue for a harpsichord with pedals, or for organ, or did he but think that a 3rd hand could be standing by at the gear up? Without the low note, the ending certainly sounds weak, considering the immense buildup to that point. On the modern piano we are lucky to have the sostenuto pedal (or eye pedal) that volition hold this notation for usa, if we tin catch information technology at a time when we are playing nothing else. It takes some doing, but solves the problem very nicely!
The last group of four in Book I begins with the refreshing Prelude and Fugue No. 21 in B-flat Major. The toccata-like Prelude is very popular with pianoforte students, who exercise non ever find it easy to play the broken chords evenly (recall of a violin here). The runs must also be without bumps when i mitt takes over from the other. More problems ascend on the 2nd page where it suddenly becomes like an improvisation (the markings Adagio and Presto in some editions never appeared in Bach'south hand). The chords must certainly be in French overture style (full sounding and doubledotted), and the tempo relaxed, but the dazzling scales should retain a sense of pulse. The timing hither is very difficult to teach and must be felt. The last bar is made most effective by disappearing into sparse air. The jaunty Fugue is written in 3-part counterpoint, which is tricky to distinguish when playing. The main problem is to separate the bell-similar notes of the first countersubject from the semiquavers — both, of form, often played by the same hand (the latter usually end up in hasty groups of ii). It is like shooting fish in a barrel to forget that once you have called an articulation for a bailiwick or countersubject, information technology should be adhered to equally ofttimes every bit possible.
Some other sublime moment arrives with Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flat small-scale. The Prelude is funeral music, and fills us with grief and sorrow. There is tenderness, though, and a quiet sense of reaching out. Fifty-fifty in this chordal texture it is of import to clarify the function-playing, and non blur it with pedal. Any repeated quavers should exist fabricated completely legato by not lifting the key all the manner between repetitions. The stillness achieved here is held over into the offset of the v-voice Fugue — another one written in stile antico . The subject is drastically simple: a fall of a fourth is answered by iv descending crotchets. It is, all the same, the leap of a minor ninth subsequently the rest that pierces the middle. In that location is no countersubject, but rather numerous stretti , culminating in a v-function 1 in bars 67–71. It has one other unusual characteristic — parallel entries of the subject in bar 55. The central of B Major would have been a new and difficult fundamental in Bach'due south day.
The clarity and light of Prelude and Fugue No. 23 come up equally balm later on the intensity of the previous piece. The Prelude, based on turns, is a three-part invention that adds a fourth part in the last line. The first four notes of the Fugue are identical to those of the Prelude, but whether this is intentional or not must remain conjecture. I love its gentle transparency, which for some reason reminds me of Christmas. Bach inverts the subject twice (bars eighteen and twenty), making information technology sound more quizzical. A lot of Baroque fingerings (fugitive the passage of the pollex) are required to play the runs while belongings other notes (i.eastward. iii-4-five-iii-4-5). The catastrophe, with the soprano and tenor in parallel motility, makes u.s.a. smile.
Bach does not choose to end Book I brilliantly. He goes the contrary way and writes music that would not be out of place in the B minor Mass. The Prelude and Fugue No. 24 in that aforementioned key is 1 of the hardest to bring off in performance unless it is played at the end of a cycle. It is as though it needs the preceding twenty-iii to make its total touch. The tempo markings are Bach's own: Andante is an indication not to accept the Prelude too slowly, and Largo befits the gravity of the Fugue. The Prelude seems like a transcription of a duet for ii woodwind instruments, with the steady walking bass of the continuo underneath. Information technology is the only Prelude in Book I to exist written in binary class with repeats (we shall have this ofttimes in Book II). The chromaticisms towards the end hint at what is to come in the Fugue — otherwise it is beautifully serene. The Fugue is one of those which nosotros can tell from the offset volition non be easy to deal with. Its desolate, sighing subject (the two-note slurs are original Bach) fittingly covers all twelve notes of the calibration and modulates to the dominant. In the class of this very long Fugue, Bach sometimes uses only half the subject field, or fifty-fifty just the first three notes (bars 19 and 28). From the very starting time the role player must accept a feeling for the structure of the whole piece and a map in mind of where it is going. The severity of the expositions (blocks of subject entries) is kickoff by the beautiful tenderness of three of the episodes — those in bars 17–20, 26–29, and especially that in bars 65–68, which is like a silent prayer. They are completely (and unusually) made up of new cloth that has null to practise with subject or countersubject. Later this, it builds upward chop-chop: half of the subject is sung by the tenor; the whole arrives powerfully in the bass; separated chords (a certain sign in Bach of the end budgeted) lead us to the last entry in the alto over a pedal point, with the soprano taking over in the last few notes. The stop is reached with finality and acceptance.
Abridged Program notes by Angela Hewitt © 2007, from liner notes for the CD, Bach:The Well-Tempered Clavier (Das Wohltemperirte Clavier), Hyperion Tape
Angela Hewitt
One of the globe'south leading pianists, Angela Hewitt regularly appears in recital and with major orchestras around the world. Admitted into Gramophone's Hall of Fame in 2015, Hewitt's performances and recordings of Bach take drawn particular praise, marking her as one of the composer'due south foremost interpreters of our fourth dimension.
In summer 2015, Hewitt was resident at Shakespeare's World in London. Recent recital highlights include performances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Birmingham Town Hall, Bath Mozartfest, Rotterdam'south De Doelen, Sociedad Filarmonica de Bilbao, and a tour of Australia with Musica Viva. Hewitt'south 2016/17 season included performances with the Baltimore Symphony and Winnipeg Symphony orchestras, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa. In bound 2017, Hewitt toured the U.k. with Vienna's Tonkünstler Orchestra. Recent appearances include the Toronto Symphony and Washington's National Symphony Orchestra, and an Asian tour with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner. Hewitt as well directs the Festival Strings Lucerne from the keyboard at Munich'south Gasteig.
In autumn 2016, Angela Hewitt embarked on a major projection entitled "The Bach Odyssey", which comprises performances of all of Bach'due south keyboard works in twelve recitals over the side by side 4 years. Hewitt will present these performances in major cities and venues around the world including London's Wigmore Hall, New York'southward 92nd Street Y, Ottawa's National Arts Middle, likewise as in Tokyo and Florence.
Hewitt's accolade-winning recordings have garnered praise from around the world. Her recording of Bach'south Fine art of Fugue was released in 2014, and her ten-twelvemonth project to tape Bach'south major keyboard works for Hyperion has been described as "i of the record glories of our age" (The Lord's day Times). Hewitt's nigh recent releases include her 6th volume of Beethoven's sonatas, a new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and Messiaen' south Turangalîla Symphony with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu. A outset anthology of Scarlatti Sonatas was released in bound 2016. Her discography also includes CDs of Mozart, Schumann, Couperin and Rameau.
Built-in into a musical family, Angela Hewitt began her pianoforte studies aged 3, performing in public at four and a year later winning her commencement scholarship. She studied with Jean-Paul Sévilla and won the 1985 Toronto International Bach Pianoforte Contest. Hewitt was appointed Officer of the Near Excellent Lodge of the British Empire in the Queen' southward Birthday Honours in 2006 and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2015. She lives in London simply as well has homes in Ottawa and in Italy, where she is Artistic Director of the Trasimeno Music Festival.
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