The "well-tempered conversation" here between Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I) and works influenced by that set doesn't look too promising on its face. For one thing, nearly every classical work has been influenced by Bach in one way or another. For another, the fugues in the Well-Tempered Clavier seem to get short shrift; the Bach pairs are answered by a single piece that is more or less in the nature of a prelude. Give pianist Julien Libeer's concept a try, though. It's musically convincing, even if it doesn't sound ...
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The "well-tempered conversation" here between Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I) and works influenced by that set doesn't look too promising on its face. For one thing, nearly every classical work has been influenced by Bach in one way or another. For another, the fugues in the Well-Tempered Clavier seem to get short shrift; the Bach pairs are answered by a single piece that is more or less in the nature of a prelude. Give pianist Julien Libeer's concept a try, though. It's musically convincing, even if it doesn't sound that way when it's put into words. Libeer avoids obvious connections; though some of his Romantic works are preludes, he chooses a Chopin mazurka instead of one of that composer's Preludes, and he draws on music both before and after the prelude's Romantic heyday. His Romantic preludes mostly contain some kind of resolution akin to what is provided by Bach's fugues. There is even one fugue -- in Mozart's Fantasia in F minor for mechanical organ, K. 608, arranged here for two pianos....
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