Bach on the Edge. A Selection of Harpsichord Works

Description

One of the essential traits of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical thought is undoubtedly his experimental vocation. It is about surpassing, at every step, what had been accomplished up to that point in a given musical genre or form, pushing to the extreme the technical resources of instruments, the human voice, and, consequently, of the performers themselves. This quest aims for a perfection that is both aesthetic and spiritual. This permanent aspiration—cultivated from the beginning to the end of his life—to push the boundaries of the possible runs through the program of this second solo album by harpsichordist Cristiano Gaudio, already awarded a Diapason d'Or and the Choc de l'Année from Classica for his first recording. From the dazzling virtuosity of the Chromatic Fantasia to the contrapuntal density of the Ricercare a 6 from The Musical Offering; from the art of transcription, magnified in the arrangement of the Violin Sonata No. 2, to the final fugue of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I—whose subject, exceptionally, embraces all twelve notes of the chromatic scale—all these works embody that bold surpassing of limits that Bach's music pursues as an essential mission. For more than three centuries, this music has offered performers and listeners alike the thrill of an intense intellectual adventure, but also that of an almost physical experience, constantly "on the edge."