Bach Concert Trio Sonata 5 and Prelude and Fugue in C minor at Ewell Father Willis
🎞️ · 05.03.2024 · 19:13:51 ··· Dienstag ⭐ 3 🎬 123
📺 Jonathan Holmes
🎬 · 05.03.2024 · 19:13:51 ··· Dienstag
😎 · 03.07.2024 · 17:56:47 ··· MiTTwoch
Bach Concert Tuesday 5 March 2024 St Mary’s Ewell
Jonathan Holmes
Bach Trio Sonata 5 in C major BWV 529. Allegro Largo Allegro
Bach Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 546
With his son Wilhelm Friedemann in mind – or maybe for a prestigious publication – Bach put together six magnificent sonatas for organ in the late 1720’s.
The dynamic Allegro with an ABA structure and two themes filled with quick runs would work well as a galant trio for two flutes and a bass. The slow movement, which according to various early copies was often slipped between the very short Prelude and fugue, BWV 545, shifts the emphasis from rhythm to harmony. A sighing motif and a sort of implicit crescendo on repeated notes form the first theme while tension is provided by the chromatic counter-theme. Bach may have taken inspiration for the theme of the last movement from Corelli, whose music had an immense impact. Even more so than in the first movement, the atmosphere here is determined by fugal tricks.
Around 1727-1730, Bach introduced a new organ genre: the trio sonata. This type of sonata –with two melodic instruments and bass, or a soloist and keyboard – had long been a fixture in Baroque chamber music, but the three parts had never been heard before on one instrument. Through clever registration, it is possible to attain a wealth of sounds on the organ, but this is merely the beginning, as the six sonatas are regarded as extremely difficult. Schweitzer, for instance, says that “those who have practiced these sonatas thoroughly will not actually encounter any more problems in either the old or the modern organ literature. [...] He has achieved absolute precision in his playing – the ultimate condition of the true art of organ-playing. In this complicated trio piece, even the smallest irregularity can be heard with terrifying clarity”.
Biographer Forkel remarked that Bach wrote the collection (or transcribed it from earlier material) for the studies of Wilhelm Friedemann, whom he “thus trained to be the great organist he later became”. Maybe this context is also the reason he adds galant touches to the Italian concerto style here and there, inspired by the operas in Dresden of which Friedemann was apparently a great fan. The sonatas remained influential for a long time, also on the young Mendelssohn, for example. Notwithstanding its chamber music origins, this is out-and-out keyboard music, with a unique interaction between both hands. The almost endless variation of form makes the collection a world of its own.
Bach Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 546
The most important manuscript of this Prelude and fugue in C minor is in the hand of Kellner.
However, this also leads to questions, as is often the case with music we do not have in Bach’s own hand. Everyone agrees that the monumental prelude is 100% Bach. It forms a stylistic and thematic entity. But opinions are somewhat divided about the fugue. That central section where the theme disappears (and where all the counterpoint even evaporates briefly) – is it really by Bach? Could Kellner have tinkered with the fugue? Or could the fugue be his composition entirely? In any case, we know he did have Bachian improvisation skills. Once, Kellner was sitting at the organ when Bach happened to enter the church and he improvised a fugue on the spot, on the German note names B A C H (B-flat, A, C, B).
The Prelude is late and dates from his time in Leipzig (1723–1750), and the fugue earlier, back to Weimar (1708–1717).
The work was played as a postlude for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Committal of Queen Elizabeth.
The Prelude showcases a massive, intricate ritornello (returning section) construction. Much of the opening theme for this work was subtly arranged and transposed in G minor for the lighter opening chorus of the cantata Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47, which was performed on 13 October 1726 in Leipzig. After the stately initial dialogue, the piece is soon flanked with a flurry of running triplets, intertwined with a looming second theme, with the original one reoccurring only in fragments until its final statement.
The Fugue has many different elements gradually expanding to a complex 5 voice texture before reverting to lighter textured episodes with little thematic connection to the fugue subject. However, after an extended sequential homophonic (chordal) episode the stately counterpoint of the opening returns for a final massive peroration.
· 05.03.2024 · 19:13:51 ··· Dienstag
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