Guest
The Second Book of the Well-Tempered Clavier closes with a playful duet and a light-hearted fugue that together last barely four minutes. The prelude is one of Bach’s ‘modern’ ones. Here, the legendary Baroque giant shows us he had nothing against his sons’ new style – see, for example, the three sections in different characters. But whereas his modern sons kept bouncing new ideas off one another, father Bach wrung every last drop out of his basic material. The fugue sounds light, but the chosen theme, full of leaps, is not very practical for keyboard. Especially not when the second, equally dynamic countertheme comes to put a spanner in the works. However, they both contrast beautifully with the first countertheme, which proceeds in little steps rather than leaps. We recorded the first book of the 'Wohltemperirte Clavier' at the homes of 24 different musicians. For the second book, performed in its entirety by Christine Schornsheim, we chose 12 very different locations in Utrecht, to celebrate
