Bach - Toccata in D minor BWV 913 - Henstra | Netherlands Bach Society

Virtuoso, inventive and moving, but also capricious to the point of recklessness. This is how you could describe this Toccata in D minor for harpsichord, performed here by Siebe Henstra for All of Bach. Although no autograph has survived, the work must have been composed shortly after Bach’s return from a journey to Lübeck. He had heard the famous Buxtehude playing there and was so impressed that he stayed longer than the couple of weeks’ leave his employer had given him. So on his return at the beginning of 1706, he got a severe reprimand from the church council in Arnstadt. When listening to this harpsichord toccata, however, one thing is crystal clear. These reprimands certainly did nothing to diminish Bach’s tendency to seek out the limits of his musical possibilities and those of his audiences. On the contrary, he gives free rein to his inspiration for over twelve minutes. An increasingly adventurous prelude gives rise to two ingenious fugues, which he interrupts with a languorous adagio. Recorded for