JS Bach Keyboard Works : Katherine Shao

JS Bach Keyboard Works by Katherine Shao

Katherine Shao : JS Bach Keyboard Works.
Beautiful bach on three different beautiful harpsichords.

Johann Sebastian Bach's harpsichord music perfectly embodies the sometimes contradictory nature of the instrument. From the languid lute-like textures borrowed from the French clavecinistes, to the abstract clarity that made it the supreme vehicle for the rigor of his counterpoint, Bach's music blends these elements with such mastery that it achieves a timeless crystallization of the sensual and the intellectual, the antique and the modern. His compositions define the harpsichord at least as much as the harpsichord, above all other instruments, defines Bach.

Commentators have pointed to French influence in many of Bach's works; but the style and spirit of the great French harpsichord tradition is perhaps best expressed in the Partitas, in spite of their Italianate title. The form of an overture followed by a suite of dances has its roots in the operas of Lully; by Bach's time, this framework had been so thoroughly appropriated by German composers that one may speak of a distinctly German style of suite. Here, however, the dances are so ethereal and textural that they could have come from the pen of Couperin. Only the counterpoint of the Overture and the muscular gravity of the Capriccio are unambiguous in their provenance.

The youthful Toccata in E minor harkens back to the models of Italian masters like Frescobaldi. Improvisatory sections alternate with abstractions of the recitato style before giving way to a rhythmically driven three part fugue on an unusually busy theme.

The Fantasy and Fugue in A minor does not appear in any of Bach's published collections and follows the model he would later exploit so kaleidoscopically in the Well-Tempered Clavier. The Fantasy is based on a descending tetrachord, which gives it a nostalgic, harmonically static feel, while the long, dense, chromatic double fugue that follows balances the work with unmatched severity.

The Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in Eb major may have been originally composed for lute, and the long sections on pedal tones of the Prelude are at the very least imbued with the spirit of that instrument. In the following double fugue, Bach employs a unique compositional tactic: a full "da capo" recapitulation of the opening page, giving the listener a rare second chance to appreciate his deft juggling of the thematic material. The rollicking finale in triple meter completes and complements one of his sunniest keyboard compositions

- written by Gonzalo X. Ruiz

Songs:

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Release date: 10/30/2010
Katherine Shao lives in Massachusetts USA

Tagged as: Classical, Baroque, Instrumental, Harpsichord, Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

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