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Johann Sebastian Bach's appearance on 7th May 1747 at the court of Frederick the Great is the best documented event in the composer's otherwise unglamorous career. During the proceedings, Frederick provided Bach with an exceptionally difficult theme on which to improvise a fugue. The King is said to have been impressed with the improvisation, but Bach himself was less so, and announced that he intended to set the theme to paper 'in a regular fugue'. Several months later the Musical Offering appeared in print – a collection of 13 pieces in diverse genres: fugues, canons and a trio sonata, all exploiting the 'Royal Theme' in various intricate ways.
Bach's published score gives no firm idea about a playing order for the pieces, and in most cases no instrument-ation is specified. Furthermore, some of the canons – the so-called 'riddle canons' – are very sketchily notated, with just a few notes and some enigmatic clues in Latin. The performers are thus left with an unusual degree of freedom when it comes to the interpretation of the work – a freedom which Masaaki Suzuki, with his colleagues from Bach Collegium Japan, is singularly well-placed to explore. Following the Offering on this disc is another collection of riddle canons by Bach: the '14 Canons on the Goldberg Ground' which were discovered as late as 1974, in the form of a hand-written addendum to the composer's own printed copy of the Goldberg Variations. The canons are all based on the first eight bass notes of the celebrated Aria from the Goldberg Variations, and are performed here as harpsichord solos, along with the Aria. The disc closes with another chamber work however – the Sonata in G major for flute, violin and basso continuo, BWV 1038
Johann Sebastian Bach
Musikalisches Opfer, BWV1079 52'57
01 Canon 1 a 2 cancrizans (hps) 1'58
02 Canon 2 a 2 Violini in unisono (2 vns, vc, hps) 0'53
03 Canon 3 a 2 per Motum contrarium (fl, vn, va) 0'56
04 Canon 4 a 2 per Augmentationem, contrario Motu (2 vns, vc, hps) 1'16
05 Canon 5 a 2 per Tonos (fl, vn, va, vc, hps) 5'59
06 Fuga canonica in Epidiapente (vn, va, vc, hps) 2'32
07 Ricercar a 3 (hps solo) 6'12
08 Canon perpetuus super thema Regium (fl, vn, vc, hps) 0'59
09 Ricercar a 6 (hps solo) 7'27
10 Canon a 2 (hps solo) 1'18
11 Canon a 4 (2 vns, hps) 2'30
12 Trio Sonata: I. Largo 5'49
13 Trio Sonata: II. Allegro 5'57
14 Trio Sonata: III. Andante 3'27
15 Trio Sonata: IV. Allegro 3'04
16 Canon perpetuus (fl, vn, vc, hps) 2'40
Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV988 (hps solo)
17 Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV988 2'25
XIV Canons on the Goldberg ground, BWV1087 (hps solo) 8'33
18 I. Canon simplex 0'32
19 II. All' roverscio 0'33
20 III. Beede vorigen Canones zugleich, motu recto e contrario 0'33
21 IV. Motu contrario e rectu 0'29
22 V. Canon duplex a 4 0'33
23 VI. Canon simplex über besagtes Fundament a 3 0'35
24 VII. Idem a 3 0'26
25 VIII. Canon simplex, il soggetto in Alto a 3 0'34
26 IX. Canon in unisono post semifusam a 3 0'31
27 X. Alio modo per syncopationes et per ligaturas a 2 - Evolutio 0'44
28 XI. Canon duplex übers Fundament a 5 0'33
29 XII. Canon duplex über besagte Fundamental Noten a 5 1'02
30 XIII. Canon triplex a 6 0'36
31 XIV. Canon a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem 0'52
Trio Sonata in G major, BWV1038 8'01
32 I. Largo 3'04
33 II. Vivace 0'59
34 III. Adagio 2'14
35 IV. Presto 1'44
Album total 72'12 |
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