Together, the prelude and fugue, played here by Christine Schornsheim, might only last three minutes, but in that short space of time Bach writes as succinctly as possible. Little motifs jump from part to part, so that your attention keeps shifting. As befits the exceptional decor of the building Fundatie van Renswoude, Bach’s treatment of the motifs here is light-hearted. In the prelude, everything revolves around inversion; the elegantly winding theme continually changes direction. In the fugue, Bach tinkers with rhythm and disruptive chromaticism.

Twenty years after his first collection of music in every key imaginable, Bach completed a second 'Wohltemperirte Clavier'. We recorded his first book of Preludes and Fugues at the homes of 24 different musicians. For this second part, performed in its entirety by Christine Schornsheim, we chose 12 very different locations in Utrecht, to celebrate the 900th anniversary of our home city.

Recorded for the project All of Bach on on 25 September 2022 at Fundatie van Renswoude, Utrecht, the Netherlands. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel [ Ссылка ] and consider donating [ Ссылка ].

For the interview with Christine Schornsheim on the Wohltemperirte Clavier II and the process of recording this in its entirety, see [ Ссылка ]
For more information on BWV 887 and this production go to [ Ссылка ]

All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society, offering high-quality film recordings of the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society and its guest musicians. Visit our free online treasury for more videos and background material on [ Ссылка ]. For concert dates and tickets go to [ Ссылка ].

Christine Schornsheim, harpsichordist
Harpsichord: Bruce Kennedy, 1989 after Michael Mietke

0:00 Prelude
1:50 Fugue

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