A Bouquet Of Bach

A Bouquet of Bach from pianist Andrew Rangell comprised works that span the career of Johann Sebastian Bach. Kicking off the album is Aria variata, BWV 989, an early and colorful set of 10 short variations that attest to Bach's earliest study of Italian stylistic models. The theme is harmonically rich, the variations brilliantly decorative. Aria variata stands with the late and monumental Goldberg Variations to form the bookends of Bach's only efforts in keyboard variations.

Also included on the album are Jesu Mein Freude, BWV 753 and Little Prelude in D minor, BWV 926, two short contrasting creations from "Clavierbuchlein" for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Jesu Mein Freude, a fragment from an organ chorale-prelude, is a strangely moving piece in three-part polyphony in which the melody is presented in nine successive closely-related phrases. The Little Prelude in D minor is an unpredictable and hemiola-filled romp that breaks surprisingly into sixteenth notes near the end, before returning, just as abruptly to eighth notes in its concluding measures.

Three Egon Petri transcriptions follow, cloaked in warm, full sonorities that are a hallmark of the nineteenth century. Of the three pieces, Sheep May Safely Graze (a soprano aria from Cantata BWV 208) is certainly the best known, but I Step Before Thy Throne ("Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit") possesses an austere beauty made even more moving by a special circumstance in its creation. C.P.E. Bach attested that his father, blind and near death, turned his attention upon this particular work, dictating what were probably some final emendations in his last hours.

Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772-801 are 30 small but significant specimens of 2 and 3‑part polyphony, each unfolding from a single "idea" developed to its conclusion. These 2 ordered collections are notable for the fact that they were seen by Bach as an early comprehensive preparation for the preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier. What shines through these 30 pieces is the sheer poetic content and character of each small adventure.