Composed in Weimar, circa 1713, J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 944 amounts to a warmup, followed by a herculean feat of athleticism.
The warmup, for our ears, the players fingers, and the instrument alike, comes with the brief ten-bar Fantasia. Bach notated this opening as chords, with the instruction, “arpeggio.” The player is free to improvise on a harmonic progression which is at once melancholy, mysterious, and sensuous.
The Fugue is a blazing perpetuum mobile. Its 72-note subject is one of Bach’s longest. The virtuosity of these contrapuntal lines attracted Franz Liszt, who played them at breakneck speed, and provided fingerings for keyboardists who followed. A gushing stream of conversing voices and modulations builds in energy, which is released in a triumphant final resolution in A major.
This performance, recorded on December 7, 2021 by the Netherlands Bach Society, features harpsichordist Emmanuel Frankenberg:
Featured Image: Rivergate Tower by architect Harry Wolf, photograph by David Cobb Craig