Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Peter Sykes :: Bach: Preludes, Fantasies & Fugues

Peter Sykes plays Bach works for keyboard on a period clavichord built in 1789 and located in the United States before 1900.

Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-Flat Major, BWV 998

Fantasy on a Rondo in C minor, BWV 918

Praeludium and Fughetta in G Major, BWV 902

Prelude and Fugue after Albinoni in B minor, BWV 923/951

Fantasy and Fugue in A minor, BWV 904

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

This recording brings together familiar and less familiar keyboard works of Bach performed on an original clavichord. Whether any of them were "intended" for the clavichord is unimportant; it is very likely that this music was played on any keyboard instrument at hand. Important is the matter of what sorts of musical ideas can be realized on the clavichord in contrast to the other keyboard instruments available in Bach's day or in our day. The flexibility of clavichord tone color, the intimacy of touch, the preciseness of articulation, not to mention the dynamic range produced by touch inflection offer the player an opportunity to shape musical phrases on a small and large scale that far surpasses the capabilities of any other keyboard instrument.

The clavichord used in this recording was made in 1789 by Johann Christoph Georg Schiedmayer and is of the unfretted type with a range of FF to g3. J. C. G. Schiedmayer (1740-1820) was the eldest son of Balthasar Schiedmayer, who was an "Orgel und Claviermacher" in Erlangen where Johann was born. His workshop was in Neustadt an der Aisch, about forty miles west of Nuremburg, and nine signed instruments survive. All show fine craftsmanship and designs. Like other clavichords of this type, it is strung in plain brass wire from g3 down to tenor c, and wound wires from B down to FF, and has a string scale well suited for a reference pitch of a=415. It arrived in America before 1900 in via piano dealer Morris Steinert.