This is my entry for the Secrets of Organ Playing Contest, week 131. I play the this movement of Bach's second Triosonate, in c minor.
Three weeks ago I already played the first half of this movement for the contest. And my intention to play the complete movement in the following. Obviously, I did not succeed. Without wanting to dwell too much on my personal problems, part of the reason of this delay is that I haven't been well lately. I struggle with a slight form of burn-out, with the pracdtical consequence that my energy level is rather low and I feel awfully tired all the time. Not exactly the ideal circumstances to practice a difficult movement of one of Bach's Triosonatas.
So, I am really glad to be finally able to record this wonderful movement. My performance is still not without error, nevertheless I am quite pleased with it. Probably because of the sheer wonder of actually playing this piece.
The main theme of this movement is typically Baroque in that it is mainly build as a sequence, something which is apparent if you look at the bass part. If you see a figure like the one in the blue box, it is immediately clear: sequence.
This theme is not only restricted to the two manual parts, the pedal part plays this theme several times as well.
In the course of the movement Bach shows his contrapuntal mastery as well. First the theme is played in both hands, with the left hand trailing two bars behind the right hand.
Than a little further on, the theme is again played with both hands, this time with the right hand trailing one bar behind the left hand.
It is a difficult piece to master, yet very very rewarding to play.
The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Klapmeyer organ in the St. Nikolai church in Altenbruch (https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/germany/klapmeyer-organ-altenbruch.html).