Luogo e data di registrazione		Bennebroek (Holland); Waalse Kerk, Amsterdam (Holland) - Novembre 1968
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SAWT 9550-B | 1 LP - durata 45' 05" | (p) 1969 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics "Gustav Leonhardt Edition" | LC 6019 | 3984-21769-2 | 1 CD - durata 75' 38" | (c) 1998 | ADD | (BWV 539) Teldec Classics "Gustav Leonhardt Edition" | LC 6019 | 3984-21352-2 | 1 CD - durata 71' 19" | (c) 1998 | ADD | (Sonaten G-dur, d-moll)
	Cover		"Familienbild Joseph III." Gemälde von Peter Jakob Horemans (1700-1776) - (Original im Schloß Nymphenburg).
	Note		-

In the early 18th century, the age of the high baroque, composers had an entirely different conception of the musical work of art than, say, a hundred years later. To Bach, Handel, Telemann and other composers of the period, compositions were always intended for a specific purpose, were capable of alteration to suit the needs of the day and, as a rule, but seldom written exclusively for one instrument. The concept of a musical work immutably fixed in its notation was foreign to them. That Bach, on grounds of economy in working, frequently changed works of his own and of others, providing them with new texts and thus gaining new works for other occasions, is generally known from his cantatas, oratorios and masses. There also exist many transcriptions of his own from his instrumental output. His concertos for keyboard instruments are, for example, with the only exception of the Concerto in C major for Two Harpsichords (BWV 1061), arrangements of concertos for the violin or other melodic instruments. These keyboard versions arose mainly between 1730 and 1735, when Bach continually needed concertos for the Collegium Musicum which he directed. He had already transcribed some of these violin concertos for organ with orchestral accompaniment between 1726 and 1728. Such practices of arranging for other instruments compositions already existing were thus entirely legitimate in the high baroque period. The three works combined on this disc were also originally composed by Bach for the violin, around 1720 in Köthen. They are taken from one of his most famous works of this artistically so fruitful period as a court conductor, the “Three Sonatas and Three Partitas for Violin Solo” (BWV 1001-1006). The Adagio of the C major Sonata (BWV 1005) also exists in a transcription for harpsichord in G major as BWV 968; whether this was made by Bach himself can no longer be established with certainty. Gustav Leonhardt has taken this version as justification for also arranging the three remaining movements for harpsichord. In the “Prelude and Fugue in D minor” for organ (BWV 539) the fugue is based on the one in the G minor Sonata (BWV 1001) of the series mentioned above. It also exists in an arrangement for lute in the original key of G minor (BWV 1000). Bach appears to have composed the prelude originally for the organ. The Harpsichord Sonata in D minor (BWV 964) was adapted from the Sonata in A minor for Solo Violin (BWV 1003). Since it has only come down to us in a copy by Bach’s last pupil Johann Gottfried Müthel, the authenticity of the arrangement has been challenged. The extraordinary care taken over the transcription, however, speaks for the master’s own hand. Certain movements of the violin sonatas have undoubtedly gained from their arrangement for keyboard instruments. It must have been clear to Bach that the strict polyphony he wrote couls only be performed to a limited degree on the violin, in spite of the flatter bridge and different bow used at that time. The preference.shown for the transcription of the Adagio from the C major Sonata, written in places in four parts, and the G minor Fugue, likewise in four parts, is thus surely no chance. It was in the new version that the polyphony which could only be suggested on a string instrument could first be truly and logically performed. The transparency of the interwoven parts becomes fully effective on the harpsichord, and particularly on the organ, with its possibility of sustaining individual notes. The same goes, of course, for the movements of the A minor Violin Sonata written in several parts, thus especially the Fugue and the Andante. That Bach at the same time transposed all the arrangements into another, basically lower key shows his endeavour to use the middle register of the keyboard instruments, where their tone is at its best. Both sonatas follow the cyclical form principle of the “sonata da chiesa”, with movements in the order slow-quick-slow-quick. Whereas the introductory Grave in G major, with its bizarrely ornamented line, takes us into the sphere of rambling baroque fantasy, the Adagio in D minor, no less rich in harmony and constructed on a constantly repeated rhythmic motif, conveys the impression of compelling logic. In its character it is related to the C major Prelude of “Das Wohltemperierte Klavier” Book I, with its unbroken plane of sound. With their very differently conceived subjects the fugues show, in spite of all the strictness of their structure, a lively alternation of densely polyphonic and freely worked sections. The initial motifs of their subjects are almost ever-present in the development sections. The third movements captivate with their calmly flowing, highly expressive melody, the “cantabile” Largo in G major being a musical gem of the first order. The final Allegros in binary form never serve to display shallow virtuosity, but remain bound to the thematic substance in every bar in spite of all their playfulness. The Prelude in D minor for organ belongs to that group of preludes, frequently encountered in Bach’s organ output, whose harmonic development proceeds in calm, measured, unchanging motion, and thus prepares for the following fugue. The latter uses a subject that was already popular a generation before Bach. Its initial motif, consisting of four repeated notes, is particularly suitable for sequential continuation in the individual developments and episodes. In this movement Bach again exploits to the full every possibility of motif treatment inherent in the theme. Lothar Hoffmann-Erbrecht