Bachs seks triosonater for orgel

03.06.2021

La oss starte med en sønns hyllest av sin fars beste verker, som en forsmak på triosonatene for orgel som presenteres her i tur og orden.

Det var med en sitrende forventning om en gjenopptagelse av disse verkene som letingen startet etter hva som finnes av filmatiserte versjoner.

Her serveres først en aperetif i form av en genial versjon av den andre satsen fra den fjerde sonaten med pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. En fabelaktig liten film om Bachs tiltrekningskraft hvor mennesker trekkes mot selve urkilden - Musikken.

Triosonatene er ofte omtalt og redusert til øvelsesstykker, dog som noe av det mest teknisk krevende organister kan begi seg utpå av Bachs orgelverker. Dette er virkelig noe av det mest lysende og frydefulle i Bachs oeuvre.

"De seks trioene for orgel er blant min avdøde fars beste arbeider. De klinger ennå idag meget godt og gir meg stor fornøyelse, til tross for at de er over 50 år gamle. Det finnes noen adagioer blant dem, som man nå tildags ikke vil kunne gjøre mere sangbare"
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Triosonate nr. 1 i Ess-dur BWV 525 / Wolfgang Zerer

Bach completed his eldest son's musical education with six sonatas.This sonata is part of a collection Bach put together for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. There was nobody for whom Bach composed and compiled more music - and music that was so personally tailored. He started before his son's tenth birthday, when Wilhelm Friedemann was already showing great talent. When he was about twenty, his father compiled six organ trio sonatas for him. This supremely Italianate piece is the first of them. It is a highlight of organ literature, in which Bach combines innovation (also with regard to style) with high technical demands.

Bach must have been convinced that these sonatas would dot the i's and cross the t's of his son's musical education. And in 1733 they did indeed take Wilhelm Friedemann where his father wanted to see him. He became the organist of the Sophienkirche in Dresden, where an organ by Bach's good friend Silbermann had been inaugurated thirteen years earlier. Bach wrote and signed the application letter for his twenty-two-year-old son himself, and also composed the piece he had to play for his audition (BWV 541).

Triosonate nr. 2 i c-moll BWV 226 / Bernard Winsemius

CONCERTO FOR A ONE-MAN BAND

All the typical elements of a solo concerto bundled into a new genreSeated at his instrument, the organist may have the means at his disposal - but does he also have the mastery? This is a pertinent question in the case of Bach's demanding organ sonatas, with their three fully autonomous parts in two keyboards and pedal. This second sonata, which comes first in one of the sources, is the model for numbers 5 and 6: an Allegro opening with alternating tutti and solo passages, and a closing fugue - here with two themes: one classical and the other very surprising and modern. For this sonata, Bach probably transcribed existing trio sonatas, but these originals have unfortunately been lost.

Triosonate nr. 3 i d-moll BWV 527 / Matthias Havinga

SIMPLE CONVERSATION

Bach´s simplest trio sonata is a great duet.To the ears of seventeenth and eighteenth-century musicologists like Mattheson, Rousseau and Schubart, the key of D minor represented melancholy, devotion, solemnity and seriousness. And Bach must have had similar ideas, as the opening of this sonata in D minor has an uncertain and emphatically andante sound. Following this tentative start, Bach launches into experimentation, by juggling motifs almost wildly and searching for new keys.The whole piece is constructed like a simple conversation between the two upper parts, accompanied by a continuo bass. The Adagio (the time signature later became Adagio e dolce) seems to be an elegant, uncomplicated flute duet. Bach reused it himself in his Concerto in A minor, BWV 1044, and Mozart used it in his String trio, KV 405a.The final movement, an exuberant Vivace, definitely makes more technical demands on the organist. In its form, this two-part fugue resembles a rondo, with a catalogue of imitating triplet figures jumping from part to part, in between the repetitions of the theme.

Triosonate nr. 4 i e-moll BWV 528 / Marco Amherd

Triosonatene ble til i perioden 1727 til 1732, i følge Bach-biografen Johann Nikolaus Forkel skrev Bach dem som undervisningsmateriale til sin eldste sønn Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Og med dette som et poeng, er det fint å flytte seg til en versjon fra en av utdanningsinstitusjonene for organister. Zürcher Hochschule der Künste er en stor institusjon med 2500 studenter innen mange kunstretninger. Orgelsalen har et modernistisk uttrykk som ligner nærmest et "romskip" - og i disse omgivelsene blir Bachs musikk tidløs flytende i et slags cyberspace.

Opptaket er fra 2015 med Marco Amherd, en begavet student som nå er en svært etablert organist og dirigent, og intendant for Davos Festival. Han gikk raskt fra student til lærer og foreleser i sine disipliner.

Opptaket er tøft og visuelt spennende også fordi det er lett å se hvordan hender og føtter beveger seg i disse tre individuelle stemmeføringene triosonaten representerer.

Triosonate nr. 5 i C-dur BWV 529 / Gerben Budding

Organ Sonata No.5 in C major, BWV 529 played by the Dutch organist Gerben Budding. On the Müller-organ in the Grote- of Jacobijnerkerk Leeuwarden (NL). Gerben Budding (1987) is internationally active as a concert organist and church musician. He is director of music of the Sint-Janskerk in Gouda with its beautiful Moreau organ from 1736 and vesper organist at the Utrecht Domkerk with its famous Bätz organ from 1831.

He received education on the conservatory in Utrecht. There he got his Bachelor and Masters' degree Organ with improvisation (both summa cum laude), a first-grade qualification as church musician and a Bachelor and Masters' degree Choir Direction (with honours). He won the First Prize at the international organ competition 'Agati-Tronci' in Pistoia (Italy), the second prize at the international Schnitger competition in Alkmaar, the Litaize Award at the international César Franck competition in Haarlem and the Public Award at the improvisation competition in Dudelange (Luxemburg).

Ekstra video er Bachs koralpreludium Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott BWV 721

Triosonate nr. 6 i G-dur BWV 530 / John Scott Whiteley

Med presentasjonen av Bachs triosonater for orgel er tiden kommet for siste - og inn kommer en godt voksen herremann, legger fra seg frakken ..... og hva kan det bli av dette her mon tro?

Herremannen heter John Scott Whiteley, og han setter i et forrykkende tempo i åpningssatsen og det svinger rimelig bra. Whiteley er katedralorganist emeritus i York Minster, hvor han var fra 1975 til 2010. Etter det gikk han over til full freelance virksomhet, med blant annet TV-opptak av alle Bachs orgelverker for BBC.