November 24: Keyboard Works, including the Italian Concerto (Sviatoslav Richter, and others)

A few things you can play.

I hope people are still playing their pandemic instruments. (Pity the trombone manufacturers...)

But my sense is that nearly all those COVID ukes and guitars are moldering in America’s closets, out of tune and out of mind.

During my fidgety days of isolation, I wanted to get back to the piano, though I’d forgotten nearly everything from my childhood. My early lessons were in the home of a local Armenian woman who bred Yorkshire Terriers in her kitchen. Debbie would tend to the puppies and field calls from prospective owners while writing the names of all the notes into my sheet music. Week after week, my mother sat outside in the station wagon, flipping through stale People magazines she’d borrowed from the library, hoping I was getting our money’s worth inside. High anxiety stuff; I internalized nothing musical.

This time around, I used the Magic Keys book series, which prioritizes sight reading. My improvement has been extremely slow going, but I’m getting there. Piano is great because some easy stuff can sound beautiful, and the harder stuff gets better. There are many lifetimes of repertoire to master.

Bach wrote a number of study pieces for beginners. You can play these! Here’s some pure sunshine from BWV 928, one of the “Little Preludes” in F Major, Glenn Gould on keys:

And of course, many beginners start with these extremely famous pieces from the Anna Magdalena Notebook. These were actually written by Bach’s contemporary Christian Petzold — what a miserable immortality, ghostwriting for a guy who didn’t need the help.

Here’s Daniil Trifonov playing something you definitely know:

And Carl Seeman in the minor key:

As these basic pieces got under my fingers, I felt like I was finally stepping into a long parade, no longer just spectating.

Nothing is stopping you from doing the same.

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This post covers keyboard works by Bach: BWV 924-932, 939-942, 948, 950, 954-5, 963-971, 989-991, 993, 994, and the Anna Magdalena Notebook. There are some other keyboard works in next week’s penultimate Miscellaneous Catchall post, but this is the bulk of what’s left, and there are some gems.

Clips below are all from the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter:

Richter, 1915-1997

In his life and music, Richter was not often in a jaunty romping mood, but here he is in party mode on the great Italian Concerto for keyboard BWV 971; this piece is so rich, go listen if you don’t know it:

Richter channels Mozart practicing Bach in the fugue of the C Major Keyboard Sonata BWV 966:

In BWV 964 in D minor, Bach transcribes the A Minor violin sonata for solo keyboard — the authorship of the arrangement is disputed:

The fugue of BWV 963 in D Major. Richter’s staccatos sound so different from Gould’s:

I’ll close with the E Major Capriccio of BWV 993. In the section below, Bach falsely resolves in the third beat of measure 61, and proceeds to twist upward before taking the sled down the mountain in parallel sixths in measure 69. Masterful: