Pieter Jan Belder JS Bach Miscellaneous Pieces For Harpsichord

The Prelude and Fugue in E Minor forms a frame, as it did in Bach’s time, around this program, designed to fit the liturgical format that gave Bach’s music its purpose; the Fantasia precedes the motet on which it is based and follows Cantata BWV 64, which quotes the fifth stanza of Johann Franck’s poem “Jesu, meine Freude.” The recording was made in the Arnstadt church where Bach served from 1703 to 1707 (the 1699 organ has recently been restored), but the two cantatas and the motet date from his first year in Leipzig. This impressive presentation, the first in a series called Bach in Context, is a hardbound book of 84 pages. The notes favor Joshua Rifkin’s understanding of one voice to a part in Bach’s vocal/choral music, the use of a harpsichord as well as the church organ (not the more versatile chest organ), and the liturgical context in which the music was originally sung.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the  most famous son of the great Johann Sebastian, created his own individual style, in which freedom of expression was the keyword. This substantial collection of keyboard works, ‘Für Kenner und Liebhaber’ (for connoisseur and amateur) contains some of his most audacious compositions, in which frequent and abrupt mood changes, improvisatory and declamatory passages without bar lines and wildly digressing modulations are the stylistic landmarks.

In 2023 Brilliant Classics released a 9CD box of the complete keyboard music by William Byrd, marking the tercentenary of the composer’s death. The set was welcomed as a monumental achievement, and a worthy sequel to Davitt Moroney’s pioneering achievement on Hyperion: ‘Those who enjoyed Belder’s forthright and imaginatively ornamented Byrd performances in his complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book survey will know what to expect,’ wrote Jed Distler in Classics Today. ‘He favors less agogic manipulation and more conservative rhythmic continuity compared to Hyperion’s Davitt Moroney. However, a palpable sense of controlled freedom informs Belder’s subtle placement of cadences and phrase endings and his flexibly articulated ornaments.’

Henry Purcell - Complete Chamber Music - Musica Amphion/Pieter-Jan Belder [7/7]
CD 7: From 20 keyboard pieces (ed. Davitt Moroney) - Suite in C - Works for organ
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 181 MB
Recorded: 2007, Doopsgezinde Kerk, Deventer & Genovevakerk, Breugel, NL
Released: 2008 | Label: Brilliant 93647/7 | TT: 34:09 | RS
Pieter-Jan Belder - harpsichord & organ

Brilliant Classics' recent release gathers together every piece of music by Purcell for solo harpsichord or instrumental ensemble. […] Even discounting his other vocal and operatic works, looking at the volume of music in this CD box set provokes the astounding realisation of just how prolific Purcell was in his mere 36 years of life. (Claudine Nightingale, musicalcriticism.com)

This offering from the combined forces of Musica Amphion and the Gesualdo Consort is presented as a hardback book with a CD tucked into the back cover. It is the second in the Bach in Context series. The aim of the project is to present Bach’s works in a liturgical format. The book goes to considerable lengths to explain Lutheran liturgy and how Bach’s compositions would have fitted into a Sunday morning service, thus presenting a prelude, cantata, choral, motet, choral and postlude - in this case the fugue. The performers also give concerts using this format.