Partita No.1 in B flat major BWV825

Prelude

Allemande

Corrente

Sarabande

Menuet 1- Menuet 2 - Menuet 1 da capo

Giga

Although the six Partitas were the first of Bach’s keyboard suites to be published - they were issued on a yearly basis between 1726 and 1731 and then collected together as Part I of the Clavierübung - they actually represent the culmination of his work in this form. Some are less ambitious than others, it is true. No.3 in A minor, for example, is comparatively short and comparatively light. But there is nothing in the earlier English Suites, still less the French Suites, to equal the stature of a Partita like No.4 in D major.

The Partita No.1 in B flat is one of the most interesting if not the most imposing work in the set. Perhaps Bach felt that, since he was undertaking his first publishing enterprise entirely at his own expense, it would be unwise to present anything too challenging to start with. Certainly, the Prelude is the shortest of the opening movements and, as the melodic interest gracefully passes through a modest texture of three contrapuntal parts, has nothing at all ceremonious about it. It admits more voices, to add dynamic and harmonic weight, only in the closing bars. The Allemande is also one of the shortest of its kind. It is outstandingly effective, however, through the intervention of a kind of second subject, a sturdy linear melody, in timely opposition to the broken chord figuration which is the basic material of the rest of the piece.

The Italian-style Corrente, on the other hand, is as long as the Courant (the French version of the same dance form) in Partita No.4. It is sustained by the tension between the continuous broken-chord triplets in one hand and the fragmented phrases in wide leaps and dotted rhythms in the other. By virtue of its exquisitely conceived melodic decoration, the Sarabande is also comparable to its distinguished counterpart in Partita No.4, basically simple though this one is in its binary structure and its regular four-bar phrasing. The two Menuets - the first in just two parts, the second in strict four-part harmony - are simple in every respect. They act as a gentle respite before the anything but simple Giga which, through its ingenious cross-hands technique, is one of the most brilliant pieces of its kind.

Praeludium

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Menuet I – Menuet II – Menuet I

Giga

The six Partitas were the first of Bach’s keyboard works to be published: they were issued on a yearly basis between 1726 and 1731 and then collected together as Part I of the Clavierübung. Even so, written as they were some time after the English and French Suites, they actually represent the culmination of his work in the keyboard-suite form. Some are less ambitious than others, it is true. Partita No.1 in B flat major, like No.3 in A minor, is comparatively short and comparatively light. But there is nothing in the English Suites or French Suites to equal the stature of Partitas No.4 in D major and No.6 in E minor.

Not much more than half as long as Nos.4 and 6, the Partita in B flat major was chosen to open the series – the publication of which was undertaken on the composer’s own initiative and at his own    expense – presumably because he thought it the most attractive and the most likely to sell. Certainly, there is no more attractive opening movement than the Praeludium in    B flat, which is based on just one theme. Elaborate in figuration and yet serene in expression, it passes from the right hand to the left and back again, accompanied on each of it’s appearances by two contrapuntal parts until near the end where another voice joins in to add weight to the closing bars.

The next three movements are in the same three dances forms as in the other partitas (though not always in the same order). A lively Allemande, its main theme made up of broken arpeggios in a mainly two-part texture, is followed by a Courante, a brilliant succession of triplets in one hand offset by wide leaps in the other, and a Sarabande which, as the partita’s equivalent of the sonata’s slow movement, is enchantingly melodious with a highly decorative right hand poised over a discreet left. These three movements are all structured in two halves each of which is repeated. The Menuet is different in that it offers two distinct minuets, the first repeated after the second. Most inspired of all, the Giga brings the work to a breathtakingly nimble conclusion, its agility much enhanced by virtuoso hand-crossing (which one would attribute to the influence of Scarlatti, a specialist in the technique, had his first keyboard publication not been a few years after Bach’s).