Bwv 992

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.

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.

Le claveciniste et organiste Luc Beauséjour fait son entrée chez ATMA Classique avec l’album BACH : un itinéraire. Cette biographie musicale de Bach suit un itinéraire des différents lieux où le compositeur a travaillé ou occupé des postes. « Que ce soit au service d’un prince ou d’un conseil municipal, les différents postes que Johann Sebastian Bach a occupés durant sa vie ont influencé sa production musicale. Exploitant l’idée de faire escale dans chacun de ces lieux de création, j’ai voulu proposer un panorama de son œuvre pour clavecin, qui, contrairement aux autres genres qu’il a abordés, couvre l’entièreté de son existence », écrit Luc Beauséjour.

Le claveciniste et organiste Luc Beauséjour fait son entrée chez ATMA Classique avec l’album BACH : un itinéraire. Cette biographie musicale de Bach suit un itinéraire des différents lieux où le compositeur a travaillé ou occupé des postes. « Que ce soit au service d’un prince ou d’un conseil municipal, les différents postes que Johann Sebastian Bach a occupés durant sa vie ont influencé sa production musicale. Exploitant l’idée de faire escale dans chacun de ces lieux de création, j’ai voulu proposer un panorama de son œuvre pour clavecin, qui, contrairement aux autres genres qu’il a abordés, couvre l’entièreté de son existence », écrit Luc Beauséjour.

Mahan Esfahani again highlights the radicalism, virtuosity—and sheer joyousness—of the works recorded here, both in his playing and in his uncommonly engaging booklet notes.

A world renowned international soloist and harpsichord teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Francesco Corti embarks a collaboration with Arcana with a musical journey through the manuscripts of the Bach family, beginning with the two books belonging to Johann Sebastian’s brother (the Möller and Andreas Bach manuscripts) and leading to the famous Büchleine for Anna Magdalena and Wilhelm Friedemann. The programme presents three major keyboard works by J. S. Bach (BWV 815, 992 and 998) that are preserved in ‘domestic’ copies. Combined with works by the most important musical figures in Bach’s musical life: Böhm, one of his teachers; Kuhnau, his predecessor as Thomaskantor; Telemann, friend and godfather to Bach’s second son Carl Philipp Emanuel; Hasse and François Couperin. The resulting programme is an unconventional Bachian harpsichord recital, a mixture of different genres and composers, that is probably much closer to the ‘home concert’ of the period than to the standard modern recital.

"I dream of forever being able to build programmes and recordings, as I do here, out of a pure desire to play. These mischievous, naive desires for play and musical pleasure are the only things that drive me. In this new album devoted to J.S. Bach, I explore a wide variety of works, each telling its own story, which could be arranged in different ways or listened to separately. The aim of this new album, my first solo work devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach, is simple but so important to me: to delight the ears and, may I hope, the heart, with a few pieces that I place in the pantheon of the Kantor and that have been with me for a long time, recorded here on a magnificent harpsichord by Philippe Humeau. And a new adventure with Ramee - an invaluable label if there ever was one - is just beginning!"

Intended to instruct us and elevate our souls , the keyboard oeuvre of Bach allows us to travel to concertante Italy and invites us to dance or improvisation. From the moving 'Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother' to the 'Italian Concerto' by way of 'Partita no.1', the pianist Claire-Marie Le Guay offers a portrait of Bach that reveals the multiple facets of his genius: the virtuoso improviser, the pedagogue, the builder of cathedrals in sound.

Only 21 years-old when this recording was made, Rémi Geniet offers us a fascinating portrait of Bach on the piano. From the virtuosity of the early works like the Toccata to the supreme mastery of the dance suites (Partita and English Suite), the drama and brio of Bach's keyboard music can vie with that of operas or concertos.

Music has its own language. Its beauty immediately discloses emotions but sometimes also conceals its meanings. The musician is compelled by this dualism to make choices, which are not always painless. To enhance one of them entails attenuating what is immediately perceptible, in order to highlight what, although existing, is not. This peculiarity makes both studying and performing a piece difficult, and must always be taken into account.