Johann Sebastian Bach: Preludes, Fantasias and Minuets

by Sandro Ivo Bartoli

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Physical release in luxurious slipcase. Comes with a separate 32-page booklet, featuring in-depth articles, essays and photography.

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Giacomo Puccini: Complete Piano Works and Selected Opera Transcriptions, Johann Sebastian Bach: Preludes, Fantasias and Minuets, and Liszt: The Franciscan Works. , and , .

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1.	Präludium, Fuge und Allegro BWV 998: Präludium 02:49	buy track
2.	Präludium, Fuge und Allegro BWV 998: Fuge 05:30	buy track
3.	Präludium, Fuge und Allegro BWV 998: Allegro 02:28	buy track
4.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium C-Dur BWV 933 01:58	buy track
5.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium c-moll BWV 934 02:25	buy track
6.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium d-moll BWV 935 01:51	buy track
7.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium D-Dur BWV 936 02:13	buy track
8.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium E-Dur BWV 937 01:27	buy track
9.	6 Kleine Präludien Präludium e-moll BWV 938 02:09	buy track
10.	Menuett G-Dur BWV 841 01:33	buy track
11.	Menuett g-moll BWV 842 01:19	buy track
12.	Menuett G-Dur BWV 843 02:31	buy track
13.	Fantasie g-moll BWV 917 03:18	buy track
14.	Präludium - Fantasie a-moll BWV 922 08:05	buy track
15.	Präludium - Fantasie c-moll BWV 921 04:08	buy track
16.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium C-Dur BWV 924 01:24	buy track
17.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium C-Dur BWV 939 00:41	buy track
18.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium c-moll BWV 999 01:20	buy track
19.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium D-Dur BWV 925 01:16	buy track
20.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium d-moll BWV 926 01:08	buy track
21.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium d-moll BWV 940 01:05	buy track
22.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium e-moll BWV 941 00:45	buy track
23.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium F-Dur BWV 927 00:38	buy track
24.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium F-Dur BWV 928 01:34	buy track
25.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium g-moll BWV 929 01:16	buy track
26.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium g-moll BWV 930 02:10	buy track
27.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium a-moll BWV 942 00:59	buy track
28.	12 Kleine Präludien Präludium C-Dur BWV 924/a 01:32	buy track
29.	Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge BWV 903: Fantasia 07:55	buy track
30.	Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge BWV 903: Fuga 06:21	buy track

about

Making records can be a tiresome affair – or it can be really simple. “I called Sandro early last year to ask him what he wanted to record as a follow-up to our Liszt recording”, Solaire’s director Dirk Fischer remembers, “And without flinching for a single second, he said: Bach.” This almost ‘mainstream’-choice was not what Fischer had expected from the unconventional Italian pianist. And yet, he was more than happy to see where it would lead them. And sure enough, the original idea quickly transformed into a unique proposition: To juxtapose some of Bach’s least known pieces – little preludes and minuets, many of which just barely scrape the one-minute mark – with two of his most monumental works for the keyboard: The Prelude, Fugue and Allegro and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue.

“The reason for choosing these small pieces is simply that ever since I learned them as a little child, I’ve been in love with them“, Sandro Ivo Bartoli explains, “And from time to time, I played them for my own pleasure. I usually play very complex repertoire, lots of notes all the time. Going back to these little pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach gives me a chance to clear my head.” These works may seem unassuming, but his interpretative demand was as ambitious as ever: “If I was going to record Bach, I at least wanted to make sure that I did not sound like anybody else. I made a conscious effort of not imitating someone. Glenn Gould in particular, because he’s inimitable.”

There is a suspenseful tension in Bartoli’s take on the Little Preludes. To him, these pieces rank as among the composer’s most precious gifts, while he also believes that they were written, as he puts it, ‘at the drop of a hat’: “He certainly didn’t put much effort into them. I think Bach would have been quite nonchalant about these pieces. In fact, of the 18 preludes I recorded, only the six which are in the Wilhelm Friedemann book are in an order prescribed by him. The others can be found here and there. I don’t think they meant very much to him.” He reflects for a second, then laughs: “But they mean a lot to me.”

The contrast with the more lengthy selections on the album could hardly be more radical. Bartoli describes the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue as “almost an isolated example of a wandering kind of writing” and “possibly a written down improvisation … by a genius”. He learned to love it early in his life, having heard it for the first time on an organ in Pisa as a 15-year old. For the recording sessions, as a personal talisman, he took with him the score he had bought in Italy as a little child, the price still printed on it in Lire. As so many choices on this album – including using a beer crate for a chair – the idea was born as spontaneously as the music itself. Which befits the spirit of a CD which, the complexity and challenges of its repertoire notwithstanding, was born from instinct – and from a spirit of joy and simplicity.

credits

released October 1, 2017

Cover Artwork: Zeno van den Broek

Produced by: Dirk Fischer
Liner Notes: Tobias Fischer, Sandro Ivo Bartoli

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about

Sandro Ivo Bartoli Vecchiano, Italy

Sandro Ivo Bartoli is a virtuoso pianist whose sumptuous playing has captivated audiences all over the world.

A graduate of the Florence State Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Music in London, he collaborated privately with Russian piano legend Shura Cherkassky, who was instrumental in the beginning of his international career. ... more

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