Over a career spanning more than 30 years, the Dutch harpsichordist and conductor Pieter-Jan Belder has become renowned as a Bach interpreter with his surveys in concert and on record of the keyboard and orchestral masterpieces such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concertos and no fewer than three recordings of the Goldberg Variations.
On this new album, recorded in 2020 and 2021 on a modern Titus Crijnen copy of a Ruckers model, Pieter-Jan Belder turns to the overlooked corners of Bach’s early writing for the harpsichord. These include standalone fugues, fantasias and suites based on themes by contemporary composers such as Reincken and Albinoni. Nevertheless, there is no sense of routine or technical exercise about them. The pieces here are almost all extrovert, playing to the strengths of the young Bach as a performer as well as composer, and already demonstrating that confidence which would go on to mark his mature compositions. An appreciation of French flair is discernible in the F minor Suite BWV823 and elsewhere, but the dominant influence is the keyboard writing of Girolamo Frescobaldi, whose toccatas and canzonas were studied by Bach from an early age.
The better-known pieces here include the sober and songful Aria variata BWV989 with its courtly French theme, and the E flat Prelude, Fugue and Allegro originally written for lute, but which also finds a happy home on the harpsichord. The most famous but also most uncharacteristic piece is the mysterious Capriccio ‘on the departure of a beloved brother’ which appears to be a work of Bach’s late teenage years, though no definite corroborative proof of its commission or purpose has yet come to light. Rather, it seems unique in Bach’s output as a humorous parody of styles and emotions.
In his Bach “journey”; the recording of the complete keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach, harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder has compiled a collection of “miscellaneous” works, mostly early works: suites, sonatas, fantasias, variations, a capriccio, fugues and preludes & fugues. These pieces offer a fascinating insight in the “making of genius”, the experiments with musical ideas, form and rhetoric which clearly show the hand of the Master he became later.
Included are some very attractive works, like the Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo BWV992, a delightful programmatic work, the Aria Variata BWV 989 and the Ouverture in F BWV 820.
Pieter-Jan Belder is currently engaged in the new recording of the complete keyboard works by Bach. Belder is one of the world’s foremost keyboard players, with an astonishing number of CD’s to his name: the complete Scarlatti Sonatas, Bach keyboard works, Rameau, Soler, Duphly, Marais, CPE Bach, Corelli, Purcell, Telemann, the complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book...to be continued. Critics praise his versatility, his innate feeling for style, his impeccable technique: “Superb keyboard artistry and consummate technique”(MusicWeb), “alive, fresh-sounding and thoroughly engaged..” (Fanfare), “The most vital Bach performances of the moment” (Volkskrant).
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture in F Major, BWV 820: I. Ouverture
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture in F Major, BWV 820: II. Entrée
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture in F Major, BWV 820: III. Menuet 1&2
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture in F Major, BWV 820: IV. Bourrée
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ouverture in F Major, BWV 820: V. Gigue
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963: I. Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963: II. Adagio
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963: III. Fuga
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963: IV. Adagio
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963: V. Thema all’ imitatione Gallina Cucca
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in D Minor, BWV 948
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in F Minor, BWV 823: I. Prélude
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in F Minor, BWV 823: II. Sarabande en rondeau
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in F Minor, BWV 823: III. Gigue
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B Minor on a Theme by Albinoni: I. Praeludium, BWV 923
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B Minor on a Theme by Albinoni: II. Fuga, BWV 951
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium et partita del tuono terza in F Major, BWV 833: I. Praeludium
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium et partita del tuono terza in F Major, BWV 833: II. Allemande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium et partita del tuono terza in F Major, BWV 833: III. Courante
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium et partita del tuono terza in F Major, BWV 833: IV. Sarabande & double
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium et partita del tuono terza in F Major, BWV 833: V. Air
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A Major, BWV 896: I. Praeludium
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A Major, BWV 896: II. Fuge
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio in honorem Johann Christoph Bachii Ohrdruf in E Major, BWV 993
Disk 2
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: I. Arioso, ist eine Schmeichelung der Freunde, um denselben von seiner Reise abzuhalten
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: II. Ist eine Vorstellung unterschiedlicher Casuum, die ihm in der Fremde könnten vorfallen
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: III. Adagiosissimo Ist ein allgemeines Lamento der Freunde
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: IV. Allhier kommen die Freunde, weil sie doch sehen, dass es anders nicht sein kann, und nehmen Abschied
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: V. Allegro Poco, aria del postiglione
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del Fratello dilettissimo, BWV 992: VI. Fuga all’ imitatione della posta
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in A Major, BWV 832: I. Allemande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in A Major, BWV 832: II. Air pour les trompettes
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in A Major, BWV 832: III. Sarabande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in A Major, BWV 832: IV. Bourrée
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in A Major, BWV 832: V. Gigue
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in C Major, BWV 946 after Albinoni
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 951a on a Theme by Albinoni: I. Fantasia
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 951a on a Theme by Albinoni: II. Fuga
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in A Major, BWV 950 on a Theme by Albinoni
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium in C Minor, BWV 921
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasie in C Minor, BWV 1121
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in A Minor, BWV 967
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasie in G Minor ‘in duobus subiectis’, BWV 917
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in A Minor, BWV 947
Johann Sebastian Bach: Canzona in D Minor, BWV 588
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in A Major, BWV 949
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium in E-Flat Major, BWV 815
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in B-Flat Major, BWV 955 on a Theme by Erselius
Disk 3
Johann Sebastian Bach: Aria variata, BWV 989
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: I. Adagio
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: II. Fuga
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: III. Adagio
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: IV. Presto
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: V. Allemande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: VI. Courante
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: VII. Sarabande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in D Minor, BWV 965 after Reincken: VIII. Gigue
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in B-Flat Major, BWV 954 on a Theme by Reincken
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate in C Major, BWV 966 after Reincken: I. Praeludium
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate in C Major, BWV 966 after Reincken: II. Fuga
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate in C Major, BWV 966 after Reincken: III. Adagio
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate in C Major, BWV 966 after Reincken: IV. Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate in C Major, BWV 966 after Reincken: V. Allemande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium, Fugue & Allegro in E-Flat Major, BWV 998: I. Praeludium
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium, Fugue & Allegro in E-Flat Major, BWV 998: II. Fuge
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium, Fugue & Allegro in E-Flat Major, BWV 998: III. Allegro
