The Praeludium in A minor, BuxWV153, begins with an extemporary section which draws to a close over a long pedal. Two fugues then follow, the subject of the first one making a feature of repeated notes, the subject of the second a compound-time variant of the first; and there is a brilliant coda in which at one point contrary motion produces harmony of a startlingly modern-sounding kind.
from notes by Relf Clark © 2010
