Rethinking the Well-Tempered Clavier

Pianists call Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Clavier their “bible”. Or should we assume that this music actually includes a coded message on salvation history Bach ardently believed in? The presentation at the National Forum of Music of an unusual project by Natalya Pasichnyk and the Calmus Ensemble may provide an answer. 

Every concert featuring Bach’s preludes and fugues is a musical celebration, even if only locally. Yet the Swedish Ukrainian pianist Natalya Pasichnyk’s project Rethinking the Well-Tempered Clavier is much more. Her keyboard album released in 2024 features a vocal ensemble, who accompany the artist (rather than the other way around), singing poetic and biblical texts. These texts are drawn from Bach’s cantatas and oratorios, as well as from Protestant chorales. As  Pasichnyk explains, the final form of the narrative was intended to be not just a simple Gospel story, but her personal “treatise” on the meaning of life for each of us.

The pianist was inspired by the theory of the Ukrainian musicologist of Polish descent, Bolesław Jaworski, who argued that the intricacies of each prelude and each fugue from Bach’s legendary series were based on the melodic-harmonic framework of a Lutheran chorale. The piano pieces would therefore have their own theological significance. Channelling this way of thinking and searching for these meanings, Pasiecznik arranged forty-eight fragments into eight “chapters”, covering topics such as Christmas and Pentecost. “If Bach’s faith created this music, I hope this music too can give birth to faith – a faith that we need more than ever in our times,” is how Pasiecznik explains her extraordinary undertaking.

Programme:

Material from Rethinking the Well-Tempered Clavier 
 
J.S. Bach / N. Pasichnyk 
Prelude in C sharp minor BWV 849, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (M. Luter)
Fugue in C sharp minor BWV 849, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (BWV 61), Jesu ach! So komm zu mir (Weinachtsoratorium BWV 248/5), Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (BWV 61 no. 6), Kreuzige! (St John Passion BWV 245)
Prelude in C major BWV 846, Du meine Seele, singe (J. Ebeling)
Fugue in A flat major BWV 862, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 1)
Prelude in C sharp major BWV 848, In dulci jubilo (BWV 368)
Prelude in A minor BWV 865, Er kennt die rechten Freudenstunden (BWV 93)
Fugue in D minor BWV 851, Befiehl du deine Wege (BWV 272)
Prelude in F sharp minor BWV 859, Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (BWV 26)
Fugue in F sharp minor BWV 859, Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (BWV 26)
Prelude in C minor BWV 847, Dies irae (M. Vulpius)
Fugue in C minor BWV 847, Wach auf, wach auf, s‘ist hohe Zeit (M. Vulpius)
Prelude in F minor BWV 857, Auf meinen lieben Gott (BWV 188)
Prelude in G sharp minor BWV 863, Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut (BWV 334)
Fugue in G sharp minor BWV 863, Herr Jesu Christ du höchstes Gut (BWV 418)
Prelude in E flat minor BWV 853, Aus liebe will mein Heiland sterben (St Matthew Passion BWV no. 58)
Fugue in B minor BWV 869, Es ist vollbracht (St John Passion BWV 245), Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen (BWV 13), Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (BWV 103), Agnus Dei and Qui tollis peccata mundi (Mass in B minor BWV 232)                                           
Prelude in G major BWV 860, Erstanden ist der heilig‘ Christ (Anonymous), Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein (BWV 128), Osanna in excelsis (Mass in B minor BWV 232)
Prelude in F major BWV 856, O ewiges Feuer (BWV 34, no. 1)
Prelude in E flat major BWV 852, Lobet den Herren (J. Crüger)
Fugue in E flat major BWV 852, Heilig, Heilig, Heilig bist du, Herr Gott Zebaoth (BWV 325)
Prelude in F sharp major BWV 858, Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben (BWV 8)
Fugue in F sharp major BWV 858, Alle Menschen müßen sterben (BWV 262), Alle Menschen müßen sterben (BWV 78)
Prelude in B flat minor BWV 867, Die Seele ruht (BWV 127)
Prelude in B major BWV 868, Vor deinen thron tret‘ ich hiermit (G. Franc, J.B. Serranus)
Fugue in B major BWV 868, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 80)

Performers:

Natalya Pasichnyk – piano
Calmus Ensemble:
Elisabeth Mücksch – soprano
Johanna Gröhn Veit – alto
Friedrich Bracks – tenor
Jonathan Müller Saretz – baritone
Michael B. Gernert – bass

Venue: