Cross-dressing Bach: Chamber Rarities & Alternative Versions

Featuring

Enrico Gatti
Rinaldo Alessandrini
Johann Sebastian Bach

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

Bach's creative process often involved adapting works for different instruments, sometimes even transposing them to suit the new medium, as seen in the Partita in G minor for solo violin.

Album & Artwork

The album title, 'Cross-dressing Bach', refers to the performers' experimentation with how Bach's musical writing is enriched by changes in instrumentation.

Historical Context

The Sonatas for violin and harpsichord in D major and G minor, originally for viola da gamba, were adapted when the viola da gamba had fallen out of fashion.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bach's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, noted that Bach revised his works many times, refining them in every minimum detail, driven by an inexhaustible striving for perfection.

Composer Biography

Johann Friedrich Agricola, a student of Bach, recalled that Bach used to play his solo violin and cello works on the clavichord, adding supplementary harmony for study and teaching.

Composition History

The Fuga in G minor BWV 1026 for violin and basso continuo is the oldest known Bach chamber music, preserved in a copy made after 1712 by Johann Gottfried Walther, Bach's cousin and colleague.