Partitas BWV 825-830

The Partitas are the first work for harpsichord published by Johann Sebastian Bach. Between 1726 and 1730, the partitas were published separately, one per year, before being brought together in a single collection in 1731. Shortly after his appointment of Cantor of the Leipzig Thomaskirche, Bach decided to devote his Opus I to a fashionable genre: the harpsichord suite, a series of dances of contrasting character, united by the same key and preceded by a prelude. The Partitas are, to all intents and purposes, Bach's last word on this musical form, the most mature, a sort of collection: each type of dance is explored, with a compositional virtuosity that requires from the performer, in addition to an undisputed technical ability, a depth of reading capable of grasping the mathematical relationships that trace the general architecture. Lorenzo Ghielmi, one of the most famous interpreters of Bach's works, presents us with a recording in which elegance and measure allow the beauty and formal rigour of these pages to coexist.