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81: Bach Whips Out His Dagger.
Since I was a child I’ve known the story of Bach pulling out a blade. What really happened? In this short episode, I read the contemporary reports fr…
1 year, 10 months ago
80: The Urtext Illusion: Textual Variance in Bach's "Aria Variata" BWV 989
Last week I posted this piece on YouTube:
The most intriguing part of studying this piece was the overwhelming amount of differences between the three…
1 year, 11 months ago
79: Passion Music for His Son. F Minor Sinfonia, BWV 795
Yes, that recording at the end is none other than Jascha Heifetz with Primrose and Piatigorksy, who apparently recorded three of the sinfonias. The w…
1 year, 11 months ago
78: Fantasy & Fugue in C minor BWV 537
Becoming familiar with Bach’s music is a never-ending process. First, there is the initial reading, which alone can occupy many happy years. What’s r…
2 years ago
77: Anyone Else Getting Married?
In this episode, we’ll explore Bach’s constant involvement with weddings. Weddings and funerals occupied a weekly place in Bach’s life in Leipzig and…
2 years ago
76: The 3rd Keyboard Partita (A Crucial Revision)
A brief(er) episode for you today: Bach’s first published opus was his six partitas for keyboard. In some of the sources within Bach’s circle, copies…
2 years, 1 month ago
75: Performer's Commentary, Vol. 3
The final performer’s commentary episode for you. This is live commentating (the program notes of the future) on the last of my three simultaneous re…
2 years, 2 months ago
74: ‘No One Ever Erected a Statue to a Critic’ (Bach vs. Scheibe)
Johann Adolph Scheibe went down in history for attacking Bach’s “turgid and confused” style.
“…from the natural to the artificial, and from the lofty…
2 years, 2 months ago
73: ‘Mi Fa, et Fa Mi est tota musica’ (BWV 1078)
On March 1, 1749, Bach penned the following into a Stammbuch:
Today’s episode covers this canon in depth. What does it mean? How does it sound?
Here is…
2 years, 3 months ago
71: Performer's Commentary, Vol. 2
Another performer’s commentary episode for you. If you’ve missed out on the second of my three simultaneous releases, you’ll have a chance to listen …
2 years, 3 months ago