Bach: Sämtliche Klavierwerke IX, Fantasien, Capricci, Ouvertures – Pietro Soraci

This double CD offers a fascinating panorama over Bach’s early years as a composer, keyboard improviser and performer. The first disk displays two of Bach’s most beloved keyboard works (the. Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and the Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother) along with other works with an improvisational inspiration, some of which reveal the extent of the influence of the Italian keyboard tradition on Bach’s early style. Disk Two comprises some works in the form of Suite or Partita, most of which are akin to the six pieces collectively known as Bach’s “French Suites”. Bach’s taste for dance movements, for lively rhythms, but also for contemplative and enchanted Sarabandes is fully displayed here, in a collection of pieces which are mainly unknown to concert audiences but which are nonetheless worth discovering, or rediscovering. The performance of this pieces is entrusted to Pietro Soraci, a specialist of Bach who is completing the recording of Bach’s keyboard works for Da Vinci Classics, played following the text of the original Bärenreiter scores.