IDAGIO | Johann Sebastian Bach: The Complete Works for Keyboard, Vol. 9 "Köthen, 1717-1723

Featuring

Benjamin Alard
Marc Mauillon
Sien Huybrechts
Anne Pekkala
Paul Monteiro
Samantha Montgomery

Ronan Kernoa
Johann Sebastian Bach

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded in April and May 2023 at the Musée de Provins et du Provinois and Musée instrumental de Provins in France.

Critical Reception

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor was highly praised by music scholar Johann Nikolaus Forkel, who called it unique and of outstanding artistic value.

Composer Biography

Bach's move to Cöthen in 1717, after a humiliating detention and dismissal from Weimar, initially seemed to improve his situation, as he developed a close relationship with the music-loving Prince Leopold.

Instruments

The album features a triple-manual harpsichord built by Hieronymus Albrecht Hass in Hamburg in 1740, which is the most complex stringed keyboard instrument of its era to have survived.

Composition History

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 BWV 1050 is considered the first keyboard concerto in musical history and was likely premiered by Bach in Berlin in 1719.

Composition History

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV 903 may have been composed after the unexpected death of Bach's first wife, Maria Barbara, given its tormented character.

Instruments

The Hieronymus Albrecht Hass harpsichord has five sets of strings (2x8', 1x4', 1x16', and 1x2'), allowing for a wider range of sound combinations than other harpsichords of the period, making it closer in aesthetic to an organ.