Bach-Busoni: Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWV 564 (Kissin)

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A superb performance of one of Busoni’s most gorgeous transcriptions.

In the opening Toccata, Kissin gives the entrance of the main subject at 2:34 a lyricism that veers from the original’s more explicitly celebratory approach, and which does not waver even as the music broadens and grows more dense. The Adagio is a miracle of control: the LH tolling like dark and distant bells, the grief-stricken final bars, the dissonances grinding like -- as Sorabji might put it -- the mills of God . And the final fugue is a sudden explosion of light and joy: just listen to the crispness of each line and the range of colours evoked – from the nearly pedal-less opening and the extraordinary inner life Kissin brings to its hidden lines, the transcendental, ecstatic flight of 15:30, and the great coruscation of the closing pages.

00:00 – Toccata (Preludio, quasi improvisando)
6:53 – Adagio (Intermezzo, il Soprano con intimo accendo e sempre cantado)
13:05 – Fugue (Fuga, Moderatamente scherzando, un poco umoristico)