Netherlands Bach Society | Bach - Toccata in D minor BWV 913 - Henstra | Netherlands Bach Society @bach | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated 9 hours ago
Virtuoso, inventive and moving, but also capricious to the point of recklessness. This is how you could describe this Toccata in D minor for harpsichord, performed here by Siebe Henstra for All of Bach. Although no autograph has survived, the work must have been composed shortly after Bach’s return from a journey to Lübeck. He had heard the famous Buxtehude playing there and was so impressed that he stayed longer than the couple of weeks’ leave his employer had given him. So on his return at the beginning of 1706, he got a severe reprimand from the church council in Arnstadt.
When listening to this harpsichord toccata, however, one thing is crystal clear. These reprimands certainly did nothing to diminish Bach’s tendency to seek out the limits of his musical possibilities and those of his audiences. On the contrary, he gives free rein to his inspiration for over twelve minutes. An increasingly adventurous prelude gives rise to two ingenious fugues, which he interrupts with a languorous adagio.
Recorded for the project All of Bach on 19th May 2015 at Felix Meritis, Amsterdam. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating http://bit.ly/2uZuMj5.
For the interview with harpsichordist Siebe Henstra on Toccata in D minor BWV 913 go to youtu.be/_M8WxZrJatU
For more information on BWV 913 and this production go to http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-913
All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society / Nederlandse Bachvereniging, 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 https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach. For concert dates and further information go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/nederlandse-bachvereniging.
Siebe Henstra, harpsichordist
Harpsichord: Titus Crijnen (1992) after Johannes Ruckers, 1638
Virtuoso, inventive and moving, but also capricious to the point of recklessness. This is how you could describe this Toccata in D minor for harpsichord, performed here by Siebe Henstra for All of Bach. Although no autograph has survived, the work must have been composed shortly after Bach’s return from a journey to Lübeck. He had heard the famous Buxtehude playing there and was so impressed that he stayed longer than the couple of weeks’ leave his employer had given him. So on his return at the beginning of 1706, he got a severe reprimand from the church council in Arnstadt.
When listening to this harpsichord toccata, however, one thing is crystal clear. These reprimands certainly did nothing to diminish Bach’s tendency to seek out the limits of his musical possibilities and those of his audiences. On the contrary, he gives free rein to his inspiration for over twelve minutes. An increasingly adventurous prelude gives rise to two ingenious fugues, which he interrupts with a languorous adagio.
Recorded for the project All of Bach on 19th May 2015 at Felix Meritis, Amsterdam. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating http://bit.ly/2uZuMj5.
For the interview with harpsichordist Siebe Henstra on Toccata in D minor BWV 913 go to youtu.be/_M8WxZrJatU
For more information on BWV 913 and this production go to http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-913
All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society / Nederlandse Bachvereniging, 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 https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach. For concert dates and further information go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/nederlandse-bachvereniging.
Siebe Henstra, harpsichordist
Harpsichord: Titus Crijnen (1992) after Johannes Ruckers, 1638
