One of
Bach
's toccatas, thanks to
Disney
, is among his most recognizable works. But it wasn't a form he essayed much, and when he did, it was at the beginning of his career. The seven toccatas offered here by harpsichordist
Christophe Rousset
, as part of his magisterial survey of
's keyboard music, are from the earliest part of the composer's career, from the court at Weimar and perhaps even from his first job, in Arnstadt. They reflect the influence of the craggy, irregular North German keyboard style, most prominently that of
Dietrich Buxtehude
, in which
was trained, with multi-sectional pieces switching abruptly between seemingly free fantasy and contrapuntal passages that seem to try to rein the fantasy in.
Rousset
may seem a bit restrained in these works for some tastes; however, there's a second aspect that he captures to a T. The reining-in was also going on as
began to assert his developing formal logic on this genre, and it is no accident that
puts the more regular
Toccata in G major, BWV 916
, at the end of his program, as a climax. There's no evidence that this was a later piece, but here,
shoehorns the toccata impulse into three movements, Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue.
neatly wraps up the role of this piece in
's developing career, with a solid, persuasive effect. There are other versions of the music that have more of an effect similar to the
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 566
, of
Fantasia
fame; listeners can sample and take their choices. But this is certainly nothing less than a typically masterly outing from
. ~ James Manheim