Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Complete Organ Music Filippo Turri

• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784):
• 1 Fugue in B-Flat Major, F.34 02:55
• 2 Fugue in F Major, F.33 05:22
• 3 Fugue in C Minor, F.32 06:35
• 4 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: I. Fugue in C Major 01:35
• 5 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: II. Fugue in C Minor 02:27
• 6 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: III. Fugue in D Major 01:04
• 7 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: IV. Fugue in D Minor 02:38
• 8 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: V. Fugue in E-Flat Major 02:48
• 9 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: VI. Fugue in E Minor 04:36
• 10 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: VII. Fugue in B-Flat Major 01:03
• 11 8 Fugues sans pédale, F.31: VIII. Fugue in F Minor 07:13
• 12 Organ Fugue in D Major 02:03
• 13 Organ Fugue in C Minor 04:28
• 14 Organ Fugue in G Minor, F.37 02:12
• 15 Choral Preludes, F.38: I. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland 01:46
• 16 Choral Preludes, F.38: II. Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht 02:13
• 17 Choral Preludes, F.38: III. Jesu, meine Freude 03:56
• 18 Choral Preludes, F.38: IV. Durch Adams Fall is ganz Verderbt 03:32
• 19 Choral Preludes, F.38: V. Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ 03:00
• 20 Choral Preludes, F.38: VI. Wir Christenleut han jetzund Freud 01:08
• 21 Choral Preludes, F.38: VII. Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh Allzeit 02:40
• 22 Fugue in A Minor "Alla Capella" 04:51
• 23 Fugue in C Minor, F.32 (2) 06:56
• 24 Fugue in B-Flat Major 04:37
• 25 Fugue in F Major 05:07
• Total Runtime 01:26:45

Info for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Complete Organ Music

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) was the first son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was taught by his father and soon he became proficient on several instruments. Although he was an organist for 20 years in Halle, he was one of the first musicians who strived for an independent life, trying to earn his living as a composer, performer and teacher. He struggled all his life, not helped by his difficult character, and he died in poverty in Berlin, totally forgotten.

Wilhelm Friedemann’s organ works stand between two worlds: that one of his father in their strict counterpoint and structures, and the world of Sturm und Drang, with their experiments, extravagances and emotional outbursts. In any case the organ works are fascinating creations of a romantic and tormented genius.

This new recording presents his 4 cycles of Fugues, as well as the 6 Choralvorspiele. Played on a Truhenorgel by Patella (1998) and the famous Zanin organ from 2007 by organist Filippo Turri, who is a specialist in the 17th and 18th century organ works from Germany and Italy.

The booklet contains texts in English by the artist, as well as the specifications of the organs.

If the engagingly unpredictable idiom of CPE Bach has overshadowed the work of Johann Sebastian’s other musical sons, Brilliant Classics has been gradually righting this wrong with a series of recordings dedicated to the other out-and-out genius among them, Wilhelm Friedemann. Without the taste for fashionably abrupt turns of phrase and thought which distinguish CPE’s Sturm und Drang language, nonetheless WF’s music occupies that fast-evolving chronological and aesthetic space between what we now think of as the Baroque and Classical periods.

Unlike his brother, Wilhelm Friedemann was a church musician in the lineage of their father. At the age of just 23 he was appointed principal organist at the church of St. Sophia in Dresden, and in 1747 became Musikdirektor and organist at the Church of Our Lady in Halle. After almost 20 years there, moved to Leipzig, then Brauschweig, followed by Gottingen and lastly Berlin, where he was offered an honorary (unpaid) post of Kapellmeister. He died in poverty in 1784, entirely forgotten by the musical community.

The organ music that has survived is dwarfed by his father’s output for the instrument. There are four sets of fugues, and a collection of just seven choral preludes. In fact the chromatic richness of the fugues brings to mind the grand, tormented examples composed by Beethoven in the last years of his life. As such, they are like problems to be solved, like containers that are no longer sufficient to encompass the composer’s intrepid discourse and abundance of feelings. Even so, WF was still writing this music in the shadow of his late father: one F major fugue inevitably uses the B-A-C-H motif which crowned The Art of Fugue.

Turri plays two recent Italian instruments: the organ by Francesco Zanin in the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, Padua; and for the more intimately scaled works, an orgelpositiv (without pedals) by Luigi Patella.

Filippo Turri, organ (Zanin-Orgel Sant'Antonio Abate Padua; Patella-Orgelpositiv)

Filippo Turri
studied at the Antonio Buzzolla Conservatoire in Adria (RO) with Alessandro Albenga and Giampietro Rosato, obtaining his Diploma with full marks in Organ and Organ Composition. Further study of various aspects of the organ repertoire were to follow under Pier Damiano Peretti, Michael Radulescu, Francesco Finotti and Roberto Loreggian. He is particularly interested in performance practice and techniques pertaining to historic keyboards, performing works of the Italian and German repertoire of the 17th-18th centuries. He plays throughout Italy, and is regularly invited to perform abroad, especially in Switzerland and Germany, his concerts meeting with widespread acclaim for the technical skill, originality of interpretation and expressive intensity that have become his hallmarks. Apart from his engagements as a soloist, he also plays continuo and accompaniment for vocal and instrumental ensembles, performing in some of the most remarkable places of Christianity such as St. Peter’s in the Vatican and the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. He is organist at the Cathedral of S. Mauro at Cavarzere (VE) and that of S. Maria Assunta in Loreo (RO), playing two of the monumental organs of the Veneto region: the B. Formentelli organ built in 1972, and the G. Callido organ of 1787.

Booklet for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Complete Organ Music