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Bach?
Yes. Toccata? Yes. Organ toccatas? Yes. Clavier Toccatas? Huh???
...that's the answer you would probably get if you ask anyone who
has heard and revelled in J.S. Bach's keyboard
works. Bach's works for manual keyboard (as opposed to a pedal keyboard
on an organ) can be played on either an organ manual or any one
of those instruments that are referred to as 'clavier': harpsichord,
virginal or clavichord. Of the three clavier instruments, the harpsichord
survives to this day and is still occasionally employed in contemporary
music and in film music ("Deathtrap", scored by Johnny Mandel, being
an excellent example).
Needless
to say, to this year, 2000, Bach is widely believed to be one of
the greatest composers that ever lived. Yet, in his heyday, he was
only the greatest organ virtuoso and composer that ever lived,
and his other compositions were regarded by most as being too antiquated
and polyphonic to be fashionable. After all, the musical world soon
moved on to embrace Mozart and Beethoven, who led the style of composition
away from strict polyphonic forms. But Bach's heroic efforts at
teaching polyphonic form and preserving the style of music that
appealed most to his rigorous intellect resulted in an enormous
legacy, leaving us works that surmount the pinnacles of their respective
genres. And so, we have The Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues,
the French Suites, the Partitas for both keyboard
and violin, the cantatas, Masses and Passions, and of course, the
final stronghold of Bachian legend, the ultimate, The Art of
Fugue which he very unfortunately left unfinished when he died.
The Toccatas
The Toccatas BWV 910-916, however, date from Bach's youth, during
his earliest period of composition while he was organist at Arnstadt
and Muhlhausen; and the transition period out of youth into maturity
during his so-called Weimar years. As such, the Toccatas do not
have the formal structure of the composer's later works, and instead
are representative of the young musician's imagination given free
rein.
Unverified
portrait of Bach
by Johann Ernst Rentsch, 1712
The
German toccatas of Bach's time had developed into a complex form
that fused the earlier showy Italian toccata with serious counterpoint,
giving birth to a distinctive stylus phantasticus. This was
right up the young composer's alley, with his virtually unlimited
inventive improvisation coupled with passion for writing in contrapunctal
complexity.
Bach
displayed freely his ingenuity for writing fugues, which form most
of these multimovement Toccatas - most incorporate two fugues -
and for incorporating endless creativity into writing his subjects,
of which no two sound even close. His rhythms are varied like his
melodic inventions, and keep the pieces going for sometimes over
a hundred bars without sign of fatigue.
Bach's
legendary improvisatory skills as a keyboard virtuoso are not lost
either, and there is plenty of material interposed between the fugues
to make the performer work his fingers and test his showmanship
and musicality. Add to this the possibility of equal temperament,
which allows the keyboard to be played in every possible key, and
voila! you have have seven wonders packed neatly into this nifty
set of Toccatas.
The
Recording
The instrument used for this performance was constructed by McAllister
in Melbourne in 1999, modelled after the heavyweight Harrass harpsichords
in Bach's time. As with its ancestor, this instrument gives exceptional
clarity in the middle register, giving Bach's massive and complex
fugal structures due credence, highlighting each and every subject
and countersubject without crowding the texture. On the other hand,
the tone and resonance of the instrument is far from thin, and the
weight of the 9-foot steel and brass strings give this instrument
a stately presence and rich voice that is more felt than heard.
Peter Watchorn proves to be a most knowledgeable and well-researched
scholar, with a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Boston University
earned five years ago (hence the title, Dr Peter Watchorn).
He gives a detailed discussion at length, on the origin and development
of the German Toccata and the place it has in Bach's repertoire,
as well as Bach's compositional skills in general, with an analysis
of each individual toccata pointing out the important features of
each movement. His programme notes form a thick volume (with translations
in Spanish, German and French) but give a fascinating read, and
his very real passion to promote this set of early Bach works is
certainly formidable.
Scholarship
does not always equate with flavourless renditions, however, as
Watchorn very definitely attests to. His reading of Bach's Toccatas
are among the finest harpsichord performances I have come across,
breathing life and vigour into the steely notes of the instrument,
which cannot change dynamics unless the player changes manuals (the
harpsichord has two separate keyboards, one for soft passages, the
other loud). Even amongst Bach keyboardists, Watchorn must surely
be way up there.
Most
importantly, Watchorn gives the pieces personality with his deep
understanding of the composer and the works, attributable to a long
time of scholastic study, and to seven years under the celebrated
Viennese harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm (1914-1995), in whose memory
this volume is dedicated. Besides taking its place in the Edition
Bachakademie (which is a complete edition of Bach's works from
Hänssler Classic), this recording proves to be a monumental foray
into a set of the great composer's lesser-known works.
SOO KIAN HING wishes he
had this harpsichord.
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20.2.2000 ©Soo Kian Hing
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