I think this set is analogous to one of those large books you get when the gift giver isn’t sure but they try and surround you with something pleasant so they can come close to the happiness mark, if not hit a complete bullseye. And it’s handy to have those items around when you’re looking for a moment or two of distraction, just like a collection of New Yorker comics, you can sit and enjoy 15 minutes and then move on to the other dreary tasks of the day, and you don’t have to feel as if you’ve left something behind (except more Bach or more Roz Chast).
My own preference would be to call Jorg Demus Plays Bach a forest bath of Bach (J.S. with a bit of C.P.E added in). This collection will surround you in filtered musical sunlight, for a journey determined by your own desire for comfort and your own listening stamina. There’s certainly enough here if you’re parched and in serious need, but as stated above, if you’re looking for a quick drink, a short hike through a heavenly meadow, this might the very thing. As stated in the opening – we could fill this entire magazine just with the history and our thoughts about the keyboard works of Bach included here.
Perhaps Bach’s original title for what is now known as the Six Partitas, BWV 825-830 is perfect for this set - “Keyboard Exercise: Consisting of Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues, Minuets, and other Galanteries, Composed for the Pleasurable Diversion of Music Lovers.” (Note 1: you’ll often see “Clavier-Ubung” used when describing Bach’s keyboard works – that’s “Keyboard Exercise”. Note 2: judging from the original title, precious little has changed in the marketing of Bach's music since Bach himself was doing it...)
Harpsichordist Davitt Maroney makes an interesting point in writing about Bach’s Partitas. Most of Bach’s works were hand copied and distributed, but the Partitas were officially published by Bach, and heavily annotated with dynamic markings and performance suggestions by J.S. himself. Bach’s directions were criticized, and Maroney suggests this might have held back Bach’s reputation for a time, as his instructions led to unsatisfactory interpretations. Maroney – to use up my finite space with an anecdote – suggests that we continue to stick to Bach’s original suggestions because he sent his compositional “children” out into the world fully clothed, instead of allowing them to wander naked and afraid through musical history. And to argue – unintentionally - both for and against, Maroney holds up Dinu Lipatti’s famous performance the second movement of Bach’s Partita No. 1 as an exact reason why we should stick to Bach’s concise notes. Lipatti speeds through the Allemande, creating more of a “nocturne” and not an Allemande at all. The self-appointed traffic cop Maroney does admit that Lipatti's performance is, in fact, beautiful, if not at all close to an Allemande, and therefore not really what Bach had in mind.
As omnipresent as the Goldberg Variations are today, complete performances of the work only began in the 1930s. Commissioned as one of the first uses of music as an aid to good sleep, these variations have transcended their original purpose and find Bach’s inspiration at its greatest level. Many have written that Bach’s keyboard works – for organ and harpsichord – are his attempts at conversations with the Almighty. In the Goldberg Variations he steps aside from the grandeur and the attempts to create a musical version of Heaven to work in a full range of emotions simply and effectively – 30 variations of a gentle aria, lasting barely one minute.
The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue - not named by J.S. Bach who referred to it as a fantasia and added the fugue later - was a work that helped establish his reputation during his lifetime, and was a favorite of composer-performers like Mendelssohn and Brahms when Bach’s reputation was restored in the mid 1800s. The fantasia is unmistakably unique and a keyboard Everest. J.S. Bach created the Anna Magdelena Songbook for his second wife, following a tradition he began with his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedrich. Much of it is written out in Bach’s own hand, and it contains much of what is now included in the French Suites, and there are many sketches and works adapted from better known works simply to fit on the allotted pages (the first Prelude of the Well-Tempered Clavier is slightly shortened and included in this collection). It may serve history more as a reflection of the musical tastes of the Bach household rather than as a key document in Bach’s compositional career. But these slight works – two presented here by C.P.E. Bach, Anna’s stepson – present a house with high quality music in each room.
