Bach Keyboard Music
Keyboard Recordings; Historical Reception

Keyboard Recordings; Historical Reception

William L. Hoffman wrote (June 2, 2019):
In the past two centuries, Bach keyboard performers have championed his keyboard music (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_keyboard_and_lute_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach) through extensive adaptations, arrangements and creations inspired by his music, have brought many iconic works before the public, and have produced recordings which have nurtured and led the Bach Revival. While Bach often conflated the composition and teaching of keyboard music involving both the organ and the two-stave keyboard harpsichord, he particularly intended the latter to be an intimate music performed in a more profane setting which, despite its technical challenges, should be played in a cantabile singing style as compared with the full sound and sonorities of the church multi-manual organ with pedal keyboard, the "King of Instruments." Much of this keyboard music was similarly written and challenging, the difference being the organ also required the use of both feet as well, a challenge even the most talented 19th century pianists like Schumann and Liszt found too difficult or distracting. To further understanding, just compiled by Aryeh Oron at the Bach Cantata Website (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/index.htm) is an updated Discography of Bach's Keyboard Works BWV 772-994, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/index.htm#Keyboard. Another keyboard category worth pursuing as well is the "Piano Transcriptions of Bach's Works & Bach-inspired Piano Works," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT.htm.¹

Recordings of Bach's keyboard music, although generally bought less than other categories such as organ or orchestral music or vocal music, have been an important part of the Bach 20th Century Revival as found in the recordings that have proliferated. Recordings have brought to life to 19th and early 20th century Bach transcriptions of Romantic piano virtuosi such as the selective Bach admirer Franz Liszt with his arrangement of Bach's vocal music and the Bach specialist and champion Ferruccio Busoni, who published all of Bach's keyboard works. The 20th-century virtuosi responded to Bach in a much broader and deeper sense, producing imaginative re-creations and new works that use Bach's music as the basis for imaginative and wide-ranging exploration, while retaining a respect and sense of integrity towards the original. Sergei Rachmaninov adapted Bach's unaccompanied "Preludio" from the Unaccompanied Violin Partita as an encore, giving Bach's music an even greater perspective. Dame Myra Hess adapted a Bach chorale chorus as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" while 20th century composers such as Villa Lobos and Bartok absorbed and projected Bach in further appreciation.

Twentieth-century keyboard legends such as Wanda Landowska and Ralph Kirkpatrick brought the original sound of Bach's keyboard instruments — the harpsichord and clavichord — almost two centuries forward to stimulate even more respect, understanding, and enjoyment. Other, later harpsichord performers introduced a wide repertory of music previously unknown on a range of instruments with a greater range of expression. Pianists such as Rosalind Trueck and Glenn Gould in the 1950s brought a renaissance of listening to Bach on the piano and made Bach's Goldberg Variations a best-seller. Later pianists introduced national stylistic perspectives and shaped new textures for a new age. In the field of historical reception, the Well-Tempered Clavier became an immediate and widespread teaching-device for composer/performers as the Classical era discovered both the craftsmanship and the appeal of Bach. Later, the Goldberg Variations stirred little interest from 19th century sensibilities but became a vehicle for the growth of specialized Bach recordings in the mid-20th century.

Recording Perspectives

In the historical reception discussion, "Bach after Bach" in the BACH 333 Collection, Nicholas Kenyon discusses an album, (CD 219) of Romantic music of "Bach & the Virtuoso: Liszt and Busoni," two of the greatest keyboard virtuosos (and composers) after Bach in the 19th century.² Liszt (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Liszt-Franz.htm), selectively transcribed keyboard, instrumental, and vocal works of Bach (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Liszt.htm), with CD 219 having Liszt's "Prelude and Fugue in A minor S 462/1" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3rhPivLH0), after Prelude and Fugue BWV 543; "Variations on the motive by Bach “Weinen, Klagen” S 180" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIb_Fnbd6rY) after Cantata BWV 12, Mass in B minor BWV 232 and Cantata BWV 99; and "Fantasia and Fugue in G minor S 463 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXkCY0HUadg) after Prelude and Fugue BWV 542." Liszt published six Bach organ preludes and fugues in his transcription for Peters, 1847-1850 (https://imslp.org/wiki/Preludes_and_Fugues_by_J.S._Bach,_S.462_(Liszt,_Franz)). Busoni (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Busoni-Ferruccio.htm) was a Bach specialist who edited all of his keyboard works and made numerous transcriptions (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Busoni.htm). These show "the full range of Busoni's adaptive skill," says Kenyon (Ibid.: 203). Best known and found in CD 219 are the "Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major BWV 564" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAjiBPdC3uM) and the Bach chorale preludes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEAhZuoB_1g).

Kenyon's study of "Bach and the Virtuoso Piano: The 20th Century" (CD 220: 204ff; https://www.bach333.com/en/assets/downloads/bach333_instrumental-and-supplement.pdf, scroll down) shows composers following Liszt doing their own creations. "This compilation moves from imaginative creation all the way through to new works based on Bach; what they have in common os respect and admiration for the endless resourcefulness of Bach's writing." First is Sergei Rachmaninov's "Suite from Partita 3" (Preludio, Gavotte, Gigue; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ9tybLfJ8o). Bach's beloved and iconic "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," is a 1723 elaborated chorale in four-parts, "Werde munter mein Gemüte" (Be alert, my soul) with orchestra that Bach set in 1723 to open and close his Visitation Festival Cantata 147 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJ2Fd6JRpQ) and British pianist Dame Myra Hess in 1926 arranged for piano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kObk3PrKw). Another iconic Bach melody is "Sheep may safely graze," soprano aria, "Schafe können sicher weiden," (Sheep can safely graze, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STWtdOTmqus), arranged by Percy Grainger as "Blithe Bells" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fUzlbigOkQ). "These light-headed sheep are surely celestial, roaming around the upper reaches of the keyboard, with some rather lurid harmo, but kept in check by a refreshing sense of pace and structure from the melody in the tenor," says Kenyon (Ibid.: 205). The best-known of 20th century composers inspired by Bach was Heitor Villa-Lobos https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Villa-Lobos-Heitor.htm), whose Bachianas brasileiras ("Brazilian Bach pieces") whose Preludio to No. 4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POxgXtW67xI) is quite rhapsodic, while Bach, says Villa-Lobos, was "a musical folkloric source, rich and profound, an intermediary for all people." Béla Bartók designed his Mikrokosmos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikrokosmos_(Bartók)) as piano studies of increasing difficulty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvDZKvBpgi4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0E9XxTMWc) and "the model of Bach's two- and three-part inventions lies behind any of these pieces," says Kenyon. Bach's"48" Well-tempered Clavier is a kind of microcosm, says Bartók, and representative is "Hommàge à J.S.B." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCCWgElcT7A).

Historic "Keyboard Legends" recordings in BACH 333 are various recording legends on the harpsichord and clavichord (Wanda Landowska, Ralph Kirkpatrick, George Malcolm, Thurston Dart, Raphael Puyana, and Gustav Leonhardt (CD 161) and the "Piano Legends" (CDS 159, 160): 1933-1956 (Edwin Fischer, Friedrich Gukda, Dinu Lipatti, Ealter Gieseking, Jorg Demus, Wilhelm Backhaus) and 1959-1993 (Alexis Weissenberg, Andrei Gavrilov, Vladimir Horowitz, and Emil Gilels). Landowska (1879-1959, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Landowska-Wanda.htm) at the turn of the century established the harpsichord as Bach's premiere keyboard instrument³ and created a renaissance of music and instruments, touring extensively and recording https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Landowska.htm), notably the "Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2FbbAUzCYA). Kirkpatrick (Prelude & Fugue in C, BWV 846, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgAAlmy_iA) and Dart promoted the softer clavichord, which Bach played in his home. As harpsichord replicas were built and recording technology improved, the bold sound "changed dramatically," says Kenyon (Ibid.: 214), "to the leaner, more ascetic approach" of Leonhardt (Suite in E minor, BWV 996, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFr2P-YW1UZdABJE1cspuwN1oEa65O-j4) and George Gilbert. New young virtuosi like Trevor Pinnock (Prelude & Fugue in A minor, BWV 894, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQlFDZ_61s) "swept most reservations side," says Kenyon. National styles include Rinaldo Allesandrini from Italy (Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 895, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCPt6nJBeUE), Pierre Hantaï from France (English Suite No. 2, BWV 807, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw3PNMJo3BM) and Andreas Staier from Germany (keyboard fantasias, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWIWpVimnPE).

Kenyon welcomes using the piano instead of the harpsichord for Bach's keyboard works since now "all manner of sonorities are acceptable," he says (Ibid.: 214ff). BACH 333 shows "The 1950s renaissance of Bach on the piano owes most to two players," Rosalyn Trueck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Gqbb_idx8) and "her polar opposite," Glenn Gould (Goldberg Variations, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwas_7H5KUs). National styles are best found in Russian Sviatoslav Richter (Italian Concerto, BWV 971, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgMFVdw0KKA) and the Viennese Paul Badura-Skoda (Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV 827; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICUE1UWbRmE). A new generation of pianists "came to reinvent Bach's texture for a new age," led by András Schiff (WTC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebe9tiWimWs). Various noted keyboardists have recorded all the keyboard works: Huguette Dreyfus (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Dreyfus-Huguette.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Dreyfus.htm), Gould (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Gould-Glenn.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Gould.htm), Angela Hewitt (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Hewitt-Angela.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Hewitt.htm), Christiane Jaccottet (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Jaccottet-Christiane.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Jaccottet.htm), Kirkpatrick (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Kirkpatrick-Ralph.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Kirkpatrick.htm), João Carlos Martins (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Martins-Joao-Carlos.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Martins.htm), Christophe Rousset (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Rousset-Christophe.htm), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Rousset.htm), Wolfgang Rübsam (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Rubsam.htm), Schiff (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Schiff-Andras.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Schiff.htm), Maasaki Suzuki (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Suzuki-Masaaki.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Suzuki.htm); Helmut Walcha (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Walcha-Helmut.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Walcha.htm). Gunnar Johansen was the first to record all the Bach keyboard works in the early 1950s on two-keyboard piano and harpsichord (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Johansen.htm). Rübsam, Suzuki, and Walcha all recorded both the complete organ and keyboard works. The recent multi-performer 21 CD set of BACH 333 lists 35 performers (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Complete.htm: No. 24).

Keyboard Historical Reception

The historical reception of Bach's keyboard music reveals that the WTC Book 1 was wcirculated after Bach's death and became the foremost study by various composers such as the teenage Beethoven, Carl Zcerny, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and many others, well into the 19th century. At that time, individual works were played often, notably the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, the Italian Concerto, and the French Overture but the Goldberg Variations were little known until the 20th entry when they became a performing and recording phenomenon. "Few of Bach's keyboard works have histories as well documents as that of the WTC1" (1722), says David Schulenberg in his exemplary of study of Bach's keyboard music,⁴ and the so-called incomplete London autograph of the WTC2, copied in three stages from 1738-42. "Both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier were widely circulated in manuscript, but printed copies were not made until 1801, by three publishers almost simultaneously in Bonn, Leipzig and Zurich," says Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier).⁵ With "with the maturing of the Classical style in the 1770s, the Well-Tempered Clavier began to influence the course of musical history." Bach's work inspired various 19th century composers with preludes and other keyboard studies, notably Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt. In the 20th century, pianists, musicologists, and conservatories have engaged in in-depth analyses and studies of such topics as its precursors, well-tempered tuning, text, style, interpretation, genesis, sources, versions, and editions.

Goldberg Variations

In contrast to the WTC, the Goldberg Variations were little-known after Bach's death and in the 19th century. The only early documentation is found in an essay, "Comparison between Handel and Bach," published in Berlin in 1788 (Bach Dok II:927), and probably authored by Emanuel Bach, says the late Peter Williams in his 2001 monograph of the work.⁶ It is "a work of riches, many-sided, up-to-date, and idiomatic for keyboard," Williams relates. The music was rarely performed in the 19th century since it "did not accord with current tastes," he suggests (Ibid.: 96). The hour-long plus study of 30 variations did not return to the original sarabande-style aria with "some flamboyant improvisation," citing E. T. A Hoffmann's dismissal, Williams observes. Pianists ignored the music possibly "because its keyboard figuration appeared more dated than would the counterpoint of the kind found in the Well-tempered Clavier," says Williams (Ibid.: 95). Schumann and his wife, Clara, "were more likely to play piano transcriptions of [organ] chorales than anything in Clavierübung, which he seems to have regarded as 'exercises' or études." The Chromatic fantasia was well suited to the piano and ideas of the time on musical rhetoric and the arts of recitation. The Goldberg music was published in 1803 along with other works such s the WTC and French Suites and were part of the first of the Bach Gesellchaft Ausgabe keyboard works published in 1853 from the printed Clavierübung. By 1886 however, the organological expert A. J. Hipkins was 'reviving' it, playing some of the variations on the harpsichord to the Royal Musical Association. In 1901, renowned British music analyst Donald Francis Tovey (1875-1940, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tovey), played them in Berlin in 1901, says Paul Elie's notes in Reinventing Bach,⁷ and Tovey later published the WTC 48 and the Art of Fugue with a completion of the unfinished fugue (https://store.doverpublications.com/048649764x.html).

The 20th century saw the acceptance of the Goldberg Variations and its phenomenal success in recital and then on recordings. Landowska championed the work and prolific pianist Claudio Arrau performed it in the mid-1930s in Berlin as part of his complete Bach keyboard works and later recorded it (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Arrau.htm#Box), says Elie (Ibid.). The most notable performers of these keyboard variations were pianist Rosalyn Trueck beginning in the 1940s and controversial Canadian keyboardist Glenn Gould beginning in the 1950s (see Leipzig Mature Keyboard Works, "Clavierübung IV: Goldberg Variations" http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Mature.htm). Trueck's experiences with Bach's music, which eventually led to her teaching at Juilliard, is recounted in Elie (p. 170f) where she "made attention to Bach's structures imperative," above all other factors. Gould's encounters with Bach, his multi-faceted career and eccentricities are chronicled in Part IV of Elie's book and in the notes Part IV (pp. 444-455, 461, and 467f).

Under the heading of "Some modern theories" regarding the understanding of the Goldberg Variations, Peter Williams finds (Ibid.: 98) that this music "has become the focus for analyses and interpretations of a rarified and theoretical kind," similar to the studied Musical Offering, Canonic Variations, and Art of Fugue, which involve hermeneutic musical technicalities and extra-musical pursuits such as involving theology. Williams suggests that this may be because "the originality of its strategies and tactics — its organization and its bar-by-bar composition — is so pronounced" that scholars turn to extra-musical concerns that are allegorical, symbolic, cognitive, mechanistic, semiotic, or sociological. In particular, the Goldberg Variations have been subject to interpretations of its "cosmological allegory" and it's "rhetorico-musical structure." Or as T. S. Eliot might have said in The Wasteland: "Every dog has its tree." At the heart of Bach's seemingly esoteric fugues — or for that matter in the French-style dances and the Goldberg Variations of the opening aria — is its cantabile or singing-style that Bach encouraged young keyboard players to pursue in the pedagogical Inventions and Sinfonias — above all else.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Previous Bach Cantata Mailing List Discussions in 2019 brought forth consideration of his organ music and piano music. The Organ Music Discussions are: BCML Discussions 5th Cycle: Organ Music Intro. by William L. Hoffman (Jan 2019); Organ Music: Today's Perspectives, Traditions by William L. Hoffman (Jan 2019); Organ Music: Transcriptions, Part 1, Sebastian's Concertos, Trios, Sonatas, etc. by William L. Hoffman (Jan 2019); Bach Family Organ Music, Student Compositions Misattributed; Albert Schweitzer & Bach by William L. Hoffman (Jan 2019); Gustav Leonhardt & Bach by William L. Hoffman (Jan 2019); My Life with Bach’s Music by Bernard Foccroulle (Jan 2019); Organ Music: Transcriptions, Part 1 William L. Hoffman (Jan-Feb 2019); Organ Music: Transcriptions, Part 2 William L. Hoffman (Feb 2019); Recent Scholarly Discussion of Bach Organ Music by William L. Hoffman (Feb 2019); Bach Organ: 19th Century "Revival" by William L. Hoffman (Feb-Mar 2019); Bach Organ: 20th Century Reception and "20th Century Organ Music: Recordings, Instruments," "Bach & Beyond: B-A-C-H Motif, Jazz, Contemporary Settings" by William L. Hoffman (Mar 2019). The Keyboard Music Discussions are Keyboard Music Intro.: Repertory, Development, Reception (Apr 12, 2019); Keyboard Music: Historical Background, 1600-1750 (Apr 23, 2019); Keyboard Composition, Bach Revival Reception (May 4, 2019); Keyboard Music: Early, Formative Years (May 15, 2019); Leipzig Mature Keyboard Works: Studies, Publications (May 19, 2019); Bach Keyboard Scholarship: Perspective, Context, Judgement (May 25, 2019, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39734). The "Early, Formative Years" (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Early.htm) led from Ohrdruf to Cöthen and covered the French dance music, BWV 812-824, and fugal pieces to the Weimar Concerto transcriptions, BWV 972-987, and the Cöthen 30 contrapuntal Inventions, BWV 772-801, and 24 Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC), Book 1, as well as the Six English Suites, BWV 806-811. The "Leipzig Mature Keyboard Works" (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Mature.htm) covered the Six French Suites, BWV 812-817, and the Six Partitas, BWV 825-830 (Clavierübung I), Italian Concerto, BWV 971, and French Overture, BWV 831 (Clavierübung II), the four canonical Duets, BWV 802-805 (Clavier-Übung III), Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 ("Clavierübung IV"), the WTC, Book 2; Art of Fugue, BWV 1080; Musical Offering, BWV 1079; and Canonic Variations, BWV 769.
² Nicholas Kenyon, BACH 333: Bach, the Music, in J. S. Bach: The New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsche Grammophon, 2018; https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8469462--bach-333-the-new-complete-edition); 222 CDs of Kenyon musical commentary.
³ See historic c.1909 photo of Landowska and the sculptor Auguste Rodin (https://www.google.com/search?q=Landowska+Rodin+photograph+c.1909&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ke44_3ah8t0sbM%253A%252CgTWSDStwu26CJM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTPiuYHW-FX3s11hfbLWkDvmR0A2w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjnxeWjiMLiAhXCvZ4KHf7kD5YQ9QEwAHoECAkQBA#imgrc=ke44_3ah8t0sbM:&vet=1.
⁴ David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 1st ed. (New York: Schirmer, 1992, 278); contents (2006 2nd ed.) https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Keyboard_Music_of_J_S_Bach.html?id=GnbGQzhz0SgC).
⁵ Some of the best-known studies of the WTC are: Hermann Keller's 1950 Die Klavierwerke Bachs: Ein Beitrag zu ihrer Geschichte, Form, Deutung und Wiedergabe (The Bach Piano Works: A Contribution to its History, Form, Interpretation and Reproduction), Siglund Bruhn's 1993 J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: In-Depth Analysis and Interpretation (https://www.amazon.com/Bachs-Well-Tempered-Clavier-Depth-Interpretation/dp/9625800174); David Ledbetter's 1996 Bach's Well-tempered Clavier: The 48 Preludes and Fugues (https://www.amazon.com/Bachs-Well-tempered-Clavier-Preludes-Fugues/dp/0300178956); Yo Tomita's essays on the WTC (http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/essay/wtc1.html, http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/wtc2.html, http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/midi.html), and Marjorie Wornell Engells' 2006 "Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier": An Exploration of the 48 Preludes and Fugues" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078642544X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0).
⁶ Peter Williams, "Questions of Reception," in The Goldberg Variations, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge University Press, 2001); 93).
⁷ Paul Elie, Part IV, "Technical Transcendence," in Reinventing Bach (New York: Farrar, Straus and Groux,
2012: 445); Elie's book conflates the life of Bach with the impact of the recording industry on his popularity while primarily focusing on the involvement of Albert Schweitzer, Pablo Casals, Leopold Stokowski, and Gould in this success.