Hyperion Records

The Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth, BWV591, is sometimes regarded as a harpsichord work; the arpeggiated chords at the end of the first section suggest an affinity with the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. The three-movement design – Introitus – Centrum – Exitus – represents a journey away from and back to the clarity and purity of C major by way of a series of convoluted harmonic side-shifts. The appoggiaturas of the fugal subject in Centrum give rise to one statement of the BACH motif (B flat, A, C, B natural) in its penultimate bar – whether by accident or design it is hard to say.

from notes by Stephen Westrop © 1999