Bach - Partita no. 1 in B-flat major BWV 825 - Edwards | Netherlands Bach Society

This first partita in Bach’s series of six keyboard partitas appeared in print in 1726. The rest followed in subsequent years and the complete set of six was reprinted in 1731. As early as 1739, music connoisseur Lorenz Christoph Mizler wrote in a review of the repeatedly reprinted organ method or Wegweiser for “the art of playing the organ correctly” that “he who cannot move his fingers better than this will scarcely be able to learn to play the Partitas for the clavier by our famous Herr Bach of Leipzig”. This remark says something about the basic standard aimed at in this method in Mizler’s review, but also about Bach’s partitas. The Partita in B-flat major immediately lives up to that reputation of above average ‘finger movements’. It becomes apparent in the Praeludium, when the theme we hear at the beginning in the upper part then appears in the left hand with trills and all. And there is something in every movement where a mediocre or careless keyboard player might mess up the fingering. Sometimes it simply concerns a stream of fast arpeggios and leaps in both hands, as in the Corrente. In the slow Sarabande, the challenge lies more in the elegant phrasing of the ornaments and flourishes that are in full view, due to the sparing accompaniment. One small mistake is immediately noticeable. When the keyboard player then arrives at the two minuets, it appears that the worst of the danger is over, as here Bach does not demand particularly difficult struggles for the...