Collector's Ed: J.S.Bach - Keyboard Works [10 CD]

In his obituary of his father, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach declared Johann Sebastian to have been the greatest organist and clavier player that we have ever had . Many contemporaries admired Bach s virtuosity on the organ and on the clavier , the word that was used to describe the harpsichord or the clavichord until well into the 18th century. But whereas numerous documents have come down to us describing Bach s abilities as an organist, his harpsichord playing is rarely mentioned. For a long time, this aspect of his artistry was known only to the court in Weimar and Cöthen, to the members of his own immediate family and to his circle of pupils. His planned contest with the French harpsichordist Louis Marchand was not intended to be held in public but in the exclusive setting of the court of the Elector of Saxony in any case, the contest did not take place as Bach s rival fled the city before it could be held. It was not until he settled in Leipzig that Bach appeared before a larger public, when he organized concerts with the student Collegium Musicum between 1729 and the early 1740s.
When Carl Philipp Emanuel referred to his father s strengths as a harpsichord player, he was undoubtedly thinking of more than just his stupendous technique Johann Sebastian was the first player to use all ten fingers as equals, in that way laying the foundations of the modern school of piano playing. In writing his keyboard works, Bach also demonstrated his total command of counterpoint, while never forgetting that music should entertain its audiences. And, finally, he proved to be an outstanding teacher for generations of pupils. It almost went without saying, therefore, that many of Bach s keyboard compositions were frequently revised within what we might describe as the force field created by the demands of his teaching methods, his delight in their brilliant execution and his quest for compositional perfection. Kenneth Gilbert s recordings cover the whole range of Bach s harpsichord output from the composer s early keyboard pieces from the start of the 18th century to the exceptionally productive years that Bach spent in Weimar and Cöthen and, finally, to Bach s Leipzig period, when he worked on his great contrapuntal anthologies. And just as Bach s musical biography begins with the anecdote about the schoolboy who disobeyed his brother s orders and secretly copied out a manuscript containing keyboard works, so it ends with another harpsichord work, the unfinished Art of Fugue.
Unlike Bach s vocal music, his keyboard works never fell into wholesale neglect. Above all, it was The Well-Tempered Clavier that kept the composer s name alive since it continued to be regarded as a standard manual on counterpoint and on keyboard playing in general. The close interest that Mozart and Beethoven took in the work is attested not only by surviving documents but also by many of their own compositions. Mendelssohn, who played a significant part in perpetuating the Bach tradition, not only paid tribute to The Well-Tempered Clavier with his own Six Preludes and Fugues op. 35 but frequently performed Bach s keyboard concertos in public, often partnering famous colleagues such as Liszt, Clara Schumann and Ignaz Moscheles in performances of the Triple Concerto BWV 1063 on modern grand pianos. It is a little-known fact that he had a predecessor within his own family: his great aunt Sarah Levy (1761 1854) had studied with Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel and often performed Bach s keyboard concertos within a private, domestic context, her playing providing a direct link between the finest of Bach s pupils and arguably the most influential champion of Bach in modern times.
Dorothea Schröder