Moving from the harpsichord to the clavichord or the organ was probably easy enough for J.S. Bach. The source of the sound didn’t matter, because for the master of Leipzig, what counted were the thought and the intellect: the form of the work, the tonality and the melodic contours were more important than the instrument itself. And indeed, through this work of musical thought, Bach used different keyboard, prefiguring the instrument to come: the piano as a synthesis of the harpsichord, the organ and the clavichord.
The unique and brilliant composer did not gloss over the fact that the era, concerned with exchanges between the different European schools, allowed musicians to copy, transcribe and adapt the work of contemporaries. Bach did it with his own scores, as well as those of his colleagues (Vivaldi, Marcello). This is also why, over the centuries, Busoni, Siloti, Kempff and Kurtág shifted the organ, orchestra and choruses of the cantatas to the piano. And now, the Ensemble Contrast presents its own vision of the Cantor: a school of freedom that never betrays his conception and allows the arabesques, beauty of song, rigorous constructions and triumphant polyphonies shine through.
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