Bach: WTC I, Prelude and Fugue in B flat major

We are getting close to the end of our project, just a few to go and perhaps Bach was feeling the same because this pair of pieces are quite brief. The prelude is right in the improvisatory/fantasia tradition and has perhaps the most impressive fireworks of any prelude we have heard. Let's start by having a listen to both pieces on harpsichord. This is the Belgian harpsichordist Bart Naessens:

It is amazing how many different ways Bach finds to arpeggiate chords and that is about all we have here, apart from scales and, in the second half of the prelude, the dotted chords of French overture style. The prelude is all about fireworks and harmony.

The fugue has a very long, but rhythmically conventional subject unlike the one from the A major fugue, so it is fairly easy to follow it every time it appears. The first half of the brief fugue is basically just a few statements of the subject and answer and a sequential episode. Then we have a couple more harmonically interesting entries of the subject, one in G minor and another in C minor. Following that we have another sequential episode and that's it. In the harpsichord version, together they take less than four minutes.

Now let's hear Sviatoslav Richter where we can follow the score. He manages to play both prelude and fugue in just a hair over two and a half minutes! He does this mainly by playing the prelude at a terrifying tempo--and one that seems just right. Fireworks indeed.