Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Fragments
Organ works completed by Lorenzo Ghielmi
Contents beneath review
Lorenzo Ghielmi, organ
rec. 2023, Stadtpfarrkirche St. Nikolaus, Rosenheim, Germany
Reviewed as a 16/44 download with pdf-booklet from Proper
Passacaille PAS 1140 [66]
It is particularly painful for performers and music lovers when music by a great composer has come down to us unfinished or in fragments. There are various reasons for this: parts of a manuscript may have been lost, or the composer may have left the piece halfway through and never have finished it, for whatever reason. This is the case with Johann Sebastian Bach. Sometimes attempts are made to reconstruct a piece or add something to it which at least brings it to a musically satisfying conclusion. Lorenzo Ghielmi has undertaken the task of recording all of Bach’s organ works that have come down to us incomplete. That is to say, one of the items is in fact the organ transcription of a complete work, and in one work it is questionable whether Bach really did leave it incomplete.
Ghielmi opens with the Fantasia in C (BWV 573) which is included in the Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach. Only thirteen bars have been preserved. In the complete recordings of Bach’s organ works in my collection it is omitted; there are only a few recordings of this piece, either as a fragment or in some completion. In his version, Ghielmi has been inspired by Antonio Vivaldi, whose music influenced the young Bach. In the same Notenbüchlein the Air in C minor (BWV 991) is included. Peter Williams, in his book on Bach’s organ music, does mention it, but does not discuss it, and that suggests that he does not count them among the organ works. It is remarkable that more of the right-hand part has been preserved than of the left hand. Ghielmi submits it was meant as a cycle of variations, like the Aria variata alla maniera italiana. He has completed the piece as a series of three variations.
The track-list mentions the Fantasia and fugue in C minor (BWV 562). In most recordings, it is just called Fantasia, indicating that the fugue is not included. That is due to the fact that only its first page has survived. It has been assumed that it was intended as a double fugue; in the conclusion the themes may have been combined. Ghielmi states that “…[no] second subject (…) seemed to be truly suitable for use in double counterpoint”, and therefore he opted for a simple fugue. This may well be a token of Ghielmi’s rather modest approach to the issue of completion.
Staying with the ‘free’ organ works, the programme closes with another Fantasia and fugue in C minor, this time with the catalogue number 537. This is a different case, as Ghielmi plays it as it has been preserved. However, it has come down to us in a copy by Johann Tobias Krebs and his son Johann Ludwig. There are differences of opinion whether Bach finished this work. Some scholars have been critical about the ending of the piece, and this has made them suggest that it may have been the work of Krebs junior. Ghielmi writes: “The fugue – most probably intended as a double fugue – does not end as it should with the combination of the two subjects but with a strange da capo that repeats the first part of the Fugue.” Peter Williams, mentioning some ‘problematic’ elements, is not convinced: “Putative ‘weaknesses’ (…) might mean only that Bach had not yet perfected the da capo conception for a fugue.” Obviously, as this work is complete as it comes, it is part of complete recordings of Bach’s organ works.
One of Bach’s most enigmatic works is his Kunst der Fuge. There has been much debate about the instrument(s) for which Bach intended this cycle of fugues. Gustav Leonhardt argued that it was meant to be played on the harpsichord. That does not prevent performers from opting for alternatives, either other keyboard instruments or a combination of instruments of other kinds, such as a consort of recorders. One of the questions about this work is whether it was finished or not, and that concerns the Contrapunctus XIV, also known as Fuga a 3 sogetti. Ghielmi thinks it was complete, but that it was written down on different sheets, and one sheet, not being recognized as part of the composition, was omitted, and has since disappeared. In his completion, he ‘restores’ it to a fugue with four themes. “My completion essentially presents the four themes (the three themes present in the composition that are superimposed on the main theme of the Art of Fugue) once more, combining them where the autograph manuscript breaks off (bar 239) in similar as well as contrary motion, first in the key of the dominant and then in the key of D minor.” Performers deal with this problem differently: some play it as it comes, breaking off where the music does, others have recorded a completed version.
The chorale takes a central place in Bach’s organ oeuvre. Many of the chorales sung in church – and used in his cantatas – he also arranged for organ, a number of them more than once in different ways. One of the main collections is the Orgelbüchlein, which he put together in Weimar (1708-1717). Originally, Bach had planned to include 164 preludes, as the titles indicate. In the end, only 43 were included. Later, during his time in Leipzig, he added three preludes; a fourth has remained incomplete. Here, the performer has little to go by: only two bars. Ghielmi has been inspired by the key of F minor and the character indication molt’adagio, and he stays as closely as possible to the style of the other chorale preludes in this collection. With the chorale arrangement O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross, he remains in the same Affekt.
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 764) is an arrangement of a hymn, which was originally conceived as a mystic wedding song, but is often connected to Christmastide. This arrangement is an early work; the manuscript breaks off after 23 bars. Ghielmi sees a similarity with the chorales in the Neumeister Collection, which inspired his completion. Jesu meine Freude was one of the most beloved hymns in Bach’s time; no wonder that Bach regularly turned to it, for instance with one of his motets. The Klavierbüchlein that he put together for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, includes a fragment of an arrangement of this hymn; it breaks off in the ninth bar. For his completion, Ghielmi is inspired by two other chorale arrangements: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (BWV 691) and Jesu meine Zuversicht (BWV 728).
The Sonata in D minor (BWV 1001) is a different case. This piece was originally written for violin without accompaniment, in the key of G minor. Bach himself transcribed the second movement, a fugue, for organ; in the Schmieder catalogue it is number 539 and is preceded by a prelude. It is neither known whether Bach himself transcribed the fugue, nor who put prelude and fugue together. Ghielmi keeps the fugue, and plays his own transcriptions of the remaining three movements.
As I mentioned above, some incomplete pieces included here have been recorded before in completions by either the performer himself or someone else. Obviously, each completion is a proposal; there are other solutions, and for those who have other recordings in their collection it is interesting to compare the different solutions. Ghielmi is rather modest in his approach; he does not try to make too much of these pieces, and does not speculate too much. That makes his versions convincing and musically satisfying. He defends his versions through his excellent playing on a fine organ; the instrument was built by the organ firm Reil in Heerde (Netherlands), specialists in the building of organs after historical models. It is an instrument with three manuals and pedal, and offers enough possibilities to do Bach’s music justice.
It seems to me that this disc is indispensable for lovers of Bach’s organ music. It is interesting to hear Ghielmi’s versions, but – as I mentioned above – some pieces are always omitted from complete recordings and seldom recorded in recitals, so this is also a unique opportunity to hear the notes Bach himself wrote.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
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Contents:
Fantasia in C (BWV 573)
Sonata in D minor (after Sonata for violin in G, BWV 1001)
Fantasia and fugue in C minor (BWV 562)
O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid (BWV Anh 200)
O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross (BWV 622)
Die Kunst der Fuge (BWV 1080):
Contrapunctus I
Contrapunctus XIV
Air in C minor (BWV 991)
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 764)
Jesu meine Freude (BWV 753)
Jesu meine Freude (BWV 1105)
Fantasia and fugue in C minor (BWV 537)
