Two pieces of what I think is early Bach. The Fughettas are early versions of the A flat major resp. G major fugues from the WTC Book 2, which was composed in 1744. The exact composition dates of these two are unknown. They are certain to be composed before 1730 but I believe they may be much older yet, seeing as the fugues from WTC Book I (1723) are so much more developed and assured. I think Bach was cutting his teeth with these.
I omitted the repeats in the BWW 902 prelude because already without them, the Prelude is 3 times longer than the Fughetta.

Bach - BWV 901 - Prelude and Fughetta in F Major (2:43)
Bach - BWV 902 - Prelude and Fughetta in G major (5:12)

Hi Chris,
It's very hard to think of JSB as ever "cutting his teeth" but I do admit that the F major fughetta, especially, seems to stop abruptly just as its starting to get steam. Anyway, you do amaze me with the facility that you continue to play Bach with. Yes, it's not always perfectly executed, but simply for the shear exposure you have given yourself, you have really done a great work.

I find some of his early keyboard work quite clumsy compared to what he was to achieve later. In particular he was not always very good with endings,

Thanks for that Eddy. I'm a bit puzzled though to hear these are not perfectly executed. I allowed absolutely no flaws here, which is why these 6 pages took me 3 or 4 hours to set down. So much for facility I must admit not having prepared these prior to recording. I'd played through them several times in the past but never practiced them. They're not such good pieces that I want to spend a LOT of time with them.

Some sections of the second prelude sound not like Bach but very "italienisch"
Anyway I enjoyed these sets! They are not that mature, but I liked the freshness You know, Chris, I'm just in the progress discovering how beautiful his music is. Listening to some P&F sets from WTC II (but still not from WTC I ) make me really happy and I'm learning one of them myself (finally!!!). You said once on a thread about Bach that I could find the beauty when I get older and I think I'm old enough for that

Ha ! Another one down Bach always gets you in the end. Resistance is futile.

Hi Chris,

While definitely not the peak of Bach's output, these two early pieces are still good compositions in my opinion at least. If they are neglected works from his younger days, perhaps they were composed closer to 1700. Who knows? Between the two I liked the Fughetta in F better. It sounded as though some unexpected accidentals (2:19 and 2:31 are examples) are written into the score that produce a very bluesy sound! Very modern thinking on Bach's part! In those moments it's still Baroque, but not so square. Very nice performance.

David

Hey Chris,

I enjoyed your performance. As I've always said, even Bach at his worst is better than most people at their best.

Anyway, I looked at the Wikipedia BWV listing (I ain't gonna try to spell out the catalogue name). This catalogue is supposedly up to date as of 1998 (15 years ago). They apply a questionable date of 1730?(!) To put it in perspective WTC I is 1722, so this would put it later in his output. As to why they chose this date, one would have to look back at the report/commentary (in German) that they wrote at the beginning of each section. I just write this to put it all in perspective and see if maybe PS can solve some interesting questions.

But, no matter how you put it, they are still wonderful pieces.

Scott.

Thanks David and Scott. Somehow I can't believe these pieces date from 1730, seeing as he wrote so much more mature P&F's in or before 1722. But it's possible. I can imagine it is difficult to accurately date many of the lesser known pieces.