German Harpsichord Music Before Bach

Album review

This is not just an album of German harpsichord music before Bach, but also an album of music that influenced Bach. The booklet notes for this Dutch release quote a fascinating letter written in 1775 by C.P.E. Bach to J.S. Bach's first biographer, Forkel, that touched on the music that had shaped his father's style. "Besides Froberger, Kerll, and Pachelbel," he wrote, "he heard and studied works of Frescobaldi, Fischer, Strunck, some older, good Frenchmen, Buxtehude, Reincken, Bruhns, and the Lüneburg organist Böhm." Some of these composers are explored on this disc. The composers on the list are extraordinary for their antiquity: Froberger died in 1667, eight years before Bach was born, and Frescobaldi was Johann Jacob Froberger's teacher. This was in an age when music quickly fell out of fashion. Perhaps these studies were what gave Bach's music its authoritative, oracular quality -- he reached far into the past, even as he kept abreast of contemporary trends and imitated the music of the great progressive, Vivaldi. At any rate, one can hear in the music on this album something of what Bach took from each predecessor -- the internationalist outlook of Froberger, the tendency toward sheer density in Dietrich Buxtehude (and perhaps the mixture of sacred and secular -- the suite Auf meinen lieben Gott, in E minor, BuxWV 179, is a fascinating oddity, a dance suite setting of a chorale), the improvisational muscle of Matthias Weckmann and Johann Kaspar Kerll. If you want to know the stylistic sources of Bach's mighty and irregular toccatas, hear the Toccata in A minor, track 14, by Weckmann. Pachelbel is represented by only one work, but it's a superb one -- the Ciaccona in C major will fill the bill for listeners who have been searching for Pachelbel compositions that resemble the celebrated Canon in D major, but not finding them among his polyphonic works for organ. If you happen to be looking to make a name writing arrangements for classical crossover albums, this chaconne offers your big chance. Sample the variations toward the end of track 8, where texture and register run riot as they do in the Canon, get out your orchestration book, and have at it. All the music is well chosen by harpsichordist Jacques Ogg, a powerful but not inexpressive player in the mold of his teacher, Gustav Leonhardt; another gem is the Froberger Suite No. 20 in D minor, whose Allemande bears the rather unusual subtitle (for an allemande, a dance) "Méditation faite sur ma mort future la quelle se joue lentement avec discrétion. N.B. Memento Mori Froberger" (Meditation on my future death, which should be played slowly and with discretion). If there is one complaint here, it is that polyphonic pieces are underrepresented; suites by Froberger, Buxtehude, and Weckmann are all included, but the only polyphonic work is the Fantasia No. 2 in E minor by Froberger. Bach was not the first composer to write fugues (or ricercars) for harpsichord. The harpsichords used, modern replicas of German instruments of Bach's time, all have a rather thumpy sound, but the interesting technical notes, by the instruments' maker, Joop Klinkhamer, explain why this is so: French builders, he notes, sacrificed articulation for tonal beauty, but in Germany clarity of line was of supreme importance. This album makes a worthwhile purchase not just for libraries strong in Baroque music, but for anyone interested in the sources of Bach's genius. The booklet shows signs of carelessness: print on AMG's review copy bled through onto the tracklist, and at one point the reader is told that Froberger "worsted" Weckmann in an organ competition. (Actually, that involved their wives at the wool-knitting contest next door.)

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