Bach: Toccata in D Minor BWV 913 (Janssen, Savary)

Among the seven Bach toccatas, the D minor one is the only which have an organistic form of writing in some parts. The first bars are a “pedal solo” used in baroque organ literature, the beginning of the “arioso” section (00:49, 14:04) might seem one of those register and atmosphere changes in a Bach’s organ preludes. Otherwise we have a typical keyboard toccata in four sections: a “toccatistic introduction” (00:00, 13:10) which contain a slow and contemplative section (00:49, 14:04), a fugue (02:24, 15:46) with a classical contrappuntistic baroque theme, a slow and meditative part (06:04, 18:50), repetitive and full of progressions, and an other fugue (08:58, 20:59) which has basically the same character of the first one, but a different subject. Janssen combines the pianistic dynamics with a sort of sharp and flourished hapsicordist way of playing, with a lot of sharpness in “toccatistic” parts like the beginning, he’s very clear in the two fugues where themes are very well marked. Savary is more pianistic, with a less marked voicing in every section and faster tempos of the fugues. 00:00 - Janssen 13:10 - Savary