Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is a composer whose music offers an opportunity for a lifelong voyage of discovery. The Kutná Hora festival has given a great deal of care to his legacy, an endeavour which has resulted in presentations here of his key chamber works, including toccatas, the Musical Offering, or suites and partitas for solo violin or cello. Coming up here tonight is a programme of Bach’s instructive compositions for two voices. Originally, these duets and inventions were destined for a keyboard instrument, aiming at the pianist’s mastery of a distinct handling of contrapuntal voices. That said, in no way do these pieces come anywhere close to pedantic exercises: indeed, what we have here are miniature gems. Bach himself introduced them as a “plain instruction whereby lovers of the piano, and notably those who aspire to being educated, will learn from actual examples not just to play with accurate intonation two voices, but (…) will above all achieve a cantabile style of playing, and thereby will acquire a solid predisposition for compositional work.”

Bach created several awe-inspiring oratorios for choir and orchestra in opulent Baroque style, the magnificent Brandenburg Concertos, and an impressive body of cantatas and instrumental concertos. And yet, such was the magnitude of his musical genius that he at the same time found enough potential in a single voice to enable him to weave its material into a richly layered structure. The Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 starts with a prelude in the mode of perpetuum mobile. The piece’s joyful character corresponds with the emotional connotation attributed in Bach’s time to the key of E major, that of “a resounding call of joy, delighted enjoyment, and delight.”        

Text: Dita Hradecká