Rinaldo Alessandrini Releases Third Bach Harpsichord Recital On Naïve

On March 19, Naïve Classiques will release Bach Klavierwerke, Rinaldo Alessandrini's third solo harpsichord recital on the French label. Rinaldo Alessandrini generally records with his ensemble Concerto Italiano but his solo harpsichord recital discs are far less frequent.

Bach Klavierwerke follows Alessandrini's critically acclaimed A La Maniera Italiana (2017), praised by Gramophone for "majestic performances, full of insight, that demand a place on the shelves of any Bachkenner," and his Bach Praeludien & Fugen (2015), which "fashions a bespoke collection of preludes and fugues spliced with keen intelligence" (BBC Music Magazine).

Numbering more than two hundred, Bach's keyboard works form the most substantial part of his output, encompassing everything from pieces designed for those in the early stages of learning to play a keyboard instrument to the legendary Well-tempered Clavier collection. In this third all-Bach recital, Rinaldo Alessandrini brings together around thirty of Bach's short pieces - among them preludes, fugues, sinfonias, inventions, fantasies, ricercar, and the Sonata for solo violin BWV 1003 - and groups them according to their kinship of key - like a mirror in three sections reflecting three different tonalities.

Setting aside the chronology, Alessandrini groups the works performed here by key signature, facilitating a wide-ranging exploration of the Bachian idiom, from the simplest composition to the most elaborate. He even takes on works whose attribution remains uncertain, like the Prelude in A minor, BWV 931, which little resembles Bach's other works in the genre. Adding a further strand of internal logic to the program is that each of its three sections is presented in the same order, allowing the listener to compare and contrast works of similar structure but different tonal atmosphere. The chosen key signatures are A minor, D minor and C minor, and each section opens with a prelude, an invention and a sinfonia. Alessandrini then moves on to pair preludes and fugues from Books I and II respectively of The Well-tempered Clavier, and rounds off each section with works of greater formal freedom: a fantasia for the A minor group, a sonata for the D minor and a fantasia and a ricercar for the C minor.

A first listen of Bach Klavierwerke from Naïve can be found HERE Bach Klavierwerke
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Harpsichord

1-3 Praeludium in A minor BWV 931 | Inventio in A minor BWV 784 | Sinfonia in A minor BWV 799
4-5 Praeludium und fuge in A minor BWV 865
6-7 Praeludium und fuge in A minor BWV 889
8-9 Fantasia con fuge in A minor BWV 904

10-12 Praeludium in D minor BWV 940 | Inventio in D minor BWV 775 | Sinfonia in D minor BWV 790
13-14 Praeludium und fuge in D minor BWV 851
15-16 Praeludium und fuge in D minor BWV 875
17-20 Sonata per il cembalo solo in D minor BWV 964 (from Sonata for solo violin in A minor BWV 1003)

21-23 Praeludium in C minor BWV 934 | Inventio in C minor BWV 773 | Sinfonia in C minor BWV 788
24-25 Praeludium und fuge in C minor BWV 847
26-27 Praeludium und fuge in C minor BWV 871
28-29 Fantasia in C minor BWV 906 | Ricercar a tre voci in C minor BWV 1079

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