BWV668a perhaps represents a complete version of BWV668—‘Vor deinen Thron’—which is incomplete, at only twenty-five and half bars long. Scholars suggest that the incomplete version (668) reflects Bach’s final improvements, but 668a is usually played, despite its difference to 668 in a few details, given its completeness. The text of 668, ‘Von deinen Thron’ has created interest in relation to the story by Bach biographer Forkel, that the prelude was ‘dictated a few days before his death to Altnickol’. There is a gentle meditative quality to the prelude, suggested by the rhythmic simplicity, and the time taken for each chorale phrase to unfold. The inner parts stay faithfully to the motifs of each successive phrase of the chorale, lending an integrated feel, and the final interrupted cadence unlocking the final few bars is touching. The effect of the movement is as a meditation on all that has preceded.

from notes by George Parsons © 2017