Tonebase Bach Stage
This thread is dedicated to J.S. Bach keyboard music. We would like to renew the inspiring spirit of the old thread "Group-Journey through J.S. Bach" based on the inventions and extend to the entire Bach repertoire: inventions, preludes, fugues, toccatas, dances of the Suites and Partitas...
This is for everyone who wants to join!
We can enjoy Bach music together and motivate each other in the process of learning and practicing it!
"I begin every day with Bach - usually for about an hour. I used to torture myself with Czerny, which of course wasn't exactly stimulating for the mind. On the other hand, it teaches you the fingering for a B flat major scale, chromatic thirds, and so on. The daily grind of learning. Later, I discovered that I could get my 'training' under way better with Bach - a refreshment for the body, soul and spirit". (András Schiff, Music Comes Out of Silence, p. 21)
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Here is my latest attempt at playing Bach - the D minor Minuet from the Anna Magdalena Notebook, Anh 132.
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Michelle R Serene and lovely! Hope your injury is healing well.
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Vidhya Bashyam Thanks, Vidhya. Yes, it's healing well but I'm at that point where it's almost fully healed and there are certain things I can't yet play without risk of re-injury - so I'm trying very hard to be patient!!
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Michelle R Beautiful and gentle playing of this lovely piece. Thank you for sharing it, Michelle!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you, Juan Carlos!
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Hi Bach friends! Here variation 13, "the most beautiful of the whole set, the White Pearl" (András Schiff dixit). Schiff establishes an inner connection with the variation 25, named the Black Pearl by Wanda Landowska. Anyway, both a priceless Bach's gift for all keyboard lovers.
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Juan Carlos Olite Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this priceless gift with us.
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Juan Carlos Olite Bravo, Juan Carlos! This felt like a perfect gift today, so so beautiful. Your touch and attention to different voices is exceptional. Inspiring as always!
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Juan Carlos Olite Beautiful, charming, delicate playing. You play with such ease. Thank you for this gift today.
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Juan Carlos Olite Very beautiful Juan Carlos. I can only concur with what others have said already: the striking clarity of the lines, the slightly melancholy wistfulness of the mood, the attention to detail, all so extradordinarily expressive. thank you for sharing this with us.
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Juan Carlos Olite Oh, Juan Carlos, this is also one of my favorites!! Gorgeous playing!
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Vidhya Bashyam Sindre Skarelven Michelle R Peter Golemme Andrea Buckland Thank you so much, my dear friends! I'm so touched for your very kind words, the make my day and motivate me to keep going with the Goldbergs journey.
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Each phrase is a shining pearl. Your attention to detail gives me goosebumps. I think we see a CD in your future on this one, dear friend!
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Gail Starr Thank you so much, Gail. You always encourage me with your personal kind words
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Here is my take on the F# minor Prelude and Fugue from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier. These pieces both proceed at a moderate pace and are not particularly difficult technically, (unless like me you find it impossible to play softly), but I nonetheless found them deceptively difficult to learn and memorize. I challenged myself to play them from memory at the recent Tonebase spring concert in March 2025, and that went pretty well. In this follow up recording, there are still some mistakes, but they occur mostly in inconspicuous places!
The fugue is a triple fugue with three separate subjects, each given its own exposition. Bach being Bach, the subjects are then combined with each other in various configurations.
One of my resolutions in my trek through the WTC is to add ornaments liberally as a way of better learning how to execute them. Also, if I play an ornament in an opening subject, I try to play it in the same place every time the subject should appear, unless impossibly awkward or excessively discordant. In the Fugue I play a long trill on the penultimate note of the first subject(e.g. the G# in the first entrance) and an inverted mordent on the second note of the second subject, (e.g. on the G# in m. 20).
I manage to play them every single time these subjects reappear, except for the very last appearance of the 2nd subject in m. 68. There, all 3 subjects are combined, and I had already worked out some very difficult and tricky fingering before I had decided to add the ornament. My fingering left no room for the mordent, but it seemed too dangerous to try and unlearn my established fingering at this climactic moment of the Fugue.
Both of these ornaments appear occasionally in various editions of the WTC. Several of the pianists in my collection play them here and there, but no one plays them at every single appearance. (That’s okay, they don’t need the practice, but I do!). Schiff, in his Henle edition notes, says he does not like the mordent in the second subject, partly because it is difficult to play – although I’m sure he could play it if he set his mind to it!
I include some further discussion & analysis of the Prelude and Fugue in the YouTube “Description” page. As always, I welcome any comments or feedback.
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Peter Golemme Bravo, Peter!! Very enjoyable to listen to! Fantastic!
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Peter Golemme Bravo, Peter! As always, I find admirable your Bach. The clarity of the voices, the perfect articulation and that beautiful and serene expressivity so appropriate to our beloved composer. Thank you so much for sharing it in our Bach Stage!
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Peter Golemme That was wonderful, Peter! Love your playing of this P&F!
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Peter Golemme Well done! Bravo!
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Andrea Buckland Thank you Andrea. It took me a very long time to get this to a performance level. I've got 4 more WTC pieces in the pipeline. Are you working on anything in the WTC right now? I think I mentioned before how much I enjoyed your lovely rendition of the F# Major from Bk 1. That one's on my list!
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Juan Carlos Olite Dear Juan Carlos, thank you for listening and for your feedback. I was rather baffled with how to express these pieces. Ultimately I had to abandon any kind of plan and instead let the expressiveness find its own way. I had conceptualized both the P & F as being much slower, but they seemed to fight me on that. A slow pace in particular made the first half of the Fugue very plodding and ponderous, at least in my hands.
Thank you for setting up this thread and for your own contributions especially those reflecting your journey through the Goldberg Variations.
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Sindre Skarelven Thanks a lot Sindre. I'm looking forward to your Mozart at the June '25 concert. I was hoping to have the G Major Bk 1 ready by then but it looks like it won't be. So I may just have to be an audience member for that one!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you Vidhya! This one was a lot of work but worth the effort! I've got some more in the pipeline.
P.S. how's your Rachmaninoff Prelude coming? are we going to have the pleasure of hearing it soon?!
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Peter Golemme I understand what you mean, Peter. Maybe you have in mind many versions of this P&F that have slower pace, I would say there is a certain tradition of that. But, you know how flexible could be Bach music about tempi and sometimes, and you are very brave in this sense, why not, you have to follow your own instinct. Your performance is wonderful as a personal alternative to this tradition, sounds perfect in mood and style and I admire you for that. Congratulations!
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Just wanted to share this personal milestone of finishing learning the two books of WTC the past year, and the next chapter is a lifelong one — to try to polish each one of them… please enjoy one of my personal favourite of all time — E-flat minor from book I, BWV 853. P.s. I’m not a professional pianist so please share some advices or tips XD
