Bach: Apocryphal Works For Keyboard I – Sergio Gasparella

There are approximately fifty keyboard compositions which may or may not have been written by Johann Sebastian Bach and pose significant challenges as concerns their authorship. Some have long been attributed to J. S. Bach, validated through recent critical source examinations, while others remain enigmatic or possess uncertain authorship. Further complexity arises from pieces once firmly embedded in the Bach repertoire but now associated with the composer’s legacy of sons, students, and colleagues. A notable repository of these compositions lies in the contentious manuscript P 804by Johann Peter Kellner, housed at the Deutsches National Bibliothek in Berlin. This source, documenting early versions of many keyboard compositions, including renowned ones, adds controversy to the Bach corpus. In spite of their uncertain authorship, there are splendid works in this groups, and this Da Vinci Classics album features some of them in the vivid interpretation given by Italian harpsichordist Sergio Gasparella.