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For me, it's the entire book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier. I just recently returned to learning classical piano after 35 years. Since most of my playing skills had atrophied over the years, I'm using this as my "boot camp" for re-training my fingers to play classical piano repertoire for which I've found it indispensable.
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Anthony Miyake It's interesting, I feel like Ben Laude would have a lot to say about this, too. As I recall, he turned to Bach when he was reconfiguring his technique, burning it down and building it up from the ashes.
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Lowry Yankwich , my introduction to the well tempered clavier felt like learning to play the piano from square one. I purchased the series when I audited a private piano lesson in college. This was at Columbia in NYC, so the teachers were quite good. The teacher had me work on the 2nd Prelude and Fugue and in one of the lessons on the Fugue, he had me just play 2 notes with my right hand, very slowly, and had me focus on the timing of playing the 2nd note after the first note and exactly how much separation was needed in the lifting of the finger from the first note and the playing of the 2nd note. And I was thinking to myself that it was like learning to play the piano again from the very beginning.
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Partita No. 2 in C minor
I’m 22 and growing up into early adulthood is probably one of the most difficult things we all go through, for me it sounds all over the place, it’s dramatic, lost, but has moments of an idealistic mood which seem to briefly burst out into a spiral of extreme uncontrollable panic, but always circles back to sounding like everything is and will be okay
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Alex Ballew Thank you for sharing. You express yourself beautifully. I'm going back to listen to the partita right away!
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Alex Ballew , I love this partita, too. I'm learning the Sarabande from it now and think it's one of the most exquisite and profound in the series. Sharing a link below to one of my favorite recordings of it.
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I love Bach’s Toccata in C minor BVW 911. I like how it meanders and climbs downward and upward throughout. Also, the opening movement of his English Suite in G minor. All the criss-crossy fast arabesque variations of the Goldberg Variations. both have a dynamic, propulsive and dance like quality — I loved them the first time I heard them. There’s something about the harmonic structures of Bach that are very satisfying to the ears.
The amazing thing about Bach is that even transcriptions and arrangements of his music are really wonderful. Like Busoni’s transcriptions — time stands still when you listen to the Adagio BVW564. I first heard this watching Gyorgy Sebok play it on YouTube. Also Jacques Loussier’s numerous jazz versions of various Bach pieces are also so good.
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I consider the St. Matthew Passion to be Bach's greatest work (and there is a lot of stiff competition!) and the single greatest work of musical art ever composed (and there is a lot of stiff competition!).
If you are asking about keyboard works, one that immediately comes to mind is the c#-minor Fugue from Book 1. The first time I ever heard this work was in Paris, played by Andras Schiff. I was just stunned, as was the rest of the audience. There was no applause for quite some time after he finished. It would have been sacrilegious and the audience knew it.
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At the moment it is variation 28 of the Goldberg Variations. Last July I broke my wrist and whilst it has 'healed' my hand is not the same as before. The problem isn't really with my wrist but with my thumb. The outside tendon has ended up stronger than the inner one pulling my thumb backwards to a position where it can't play properly. This variation with the trills and the opening out of the little finger needs the thumb to stay in the correct shape and I really think that this piece is helping to redevelop the strength that used to be there. The Doctors said it would take a year to completely heal so I still have a few months and hopefully, I think particularly with the aid of this piece, it will continue to improve. Apart from using it for therapy though it is a beautiful piece of music as well!
