Hyperion Records

Dating from 1709 or earlier, the D major Prelude and Fugue, BWV532 shares, with a number of other early (or early versions of) preludes and fugues, an inter-connecting adagio between the two. Here the structure is taken a stage further, with a free toccata (to announce the key) introducing a brisk patterned, rather Italian movement, before a markedly powerful sequence of harmony, with double pedal, to close. The Spielfuge, borrowing elements from Buxtehude, is chiefly remarkable for its unflagging energy and supremely virtuoso pedal part; surely it was this piece which inspired the contemporary comment that Bach’s feet flew across the pedals as birds on the wing.

from notes by Robin Langley © 1993