In contrast to the large collections of partitas, along with the French and English Suites, Bach’s Fantasies, and his Preludes and Fugues besides the Well-Tempered Clavier have not come down to us as interconnected cycles. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why only few of these works gained widespread popularity. Only the much-acclaimed Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV 903/903a and the great c-minor Fantasy BWV 919 have found a permanent place in pianists’ concert repertoires.
Some of the works compiled in this volume are undoubtedly juvenilia that do not yet hint at the mature Bach whilst nevertheless pointing out the composer’s fresh power of invention.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
