Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 04/29/2015, uploaded on 08/19/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543  Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by Franz Liszt

Passion, fury, and drama – this is what one feels at the opening of the Prelude in A Minor. Its chromatic shadings and the constant rhythmic shifts from even 16^th notes to triplets to 32nds create a sense of great agitation. The Fugue brings in a sense of peace and order with its measured pace and harmonious and orderly sequences. It does, however, build up to a dramatic culmination, concluding with a passionate cadenza. As it is poignantly stated in the “History of Western Music” by Grout and Palisca, the work shows a heavy influence of the Italian Violin school, especially that of Antonio Vivaldi. Franz Liszt loyally kept the original organ composition fully intact, simply doubling the material for the pedals in powerful left-hand octaves.      Kariné Poghosyan

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.