New Video Bach Fugue n 16 in G minor BWV 861 WTC1

carmelo.paolucci wrote:

Dear Friends,

This week the discovery of WTC1 leads us to consider the mysterious Fugue No. 16 in G minor.
The fugue (à 4) is a highly instructive piece. By the way it may be mentioned that a Capriccio in D-minor by Friedemann Bach has fugal treatment of a theme almost similar. As Friedemann was only twelve years of age when his father had completed the first part of the Well-tempered Clavier (1722), his work is probably an unconscious plagiarism; but, in every respect, it is inferior to that of his father's, and especially in the character of the theme
itself, which has lost its pensive earnestness, and has become hurried and restless; the absence of the feminine ending in the first half, and of the (accented) rest at the beginning of the second, are heavy losses.
Jadassohn justly notices the unity of the whole fugue, inasmuch as the countersubject introduces no fresh motive, but only the inversion of theme motives.
The countersubject would really be only the inversion of the theme, with the two halves in reversed position, and slight bridging over of the gap but then the tautology of both would have been unmistakable, and the whole would have been in danger of losing its vitality. Bach, indeed, by using both halves of the theme, but displaced by one crotchet in the measure (so that the accented becomes unaccented, and vice versa), makes the same thing appear something quite differerit. (It is well known that the charm of a close canon consists in the imitatio becorming countersubject).
If we articulate Bach's countersubject more precisely, we find first a syncopated motive (the g before the rest produces an effect quite similar to a note held over, only more striking, more sobbing), which in the feminine ending beyond the rest contains a second element foreign to the theme.
I hope you like it, playing it was Fantastic for me!
Greetings from Italy
Carmelo

My actual setting is:

Played on Yamaha P125 piano stage                                          Video Recording Samsung Galaxy A54.
VST: Hamburg Steinway D Pianoteq Stage 8.4.0

https://youtu.be/AZEamV-Gag0

Hello again my friend. As I said about your playing in the Handel Adagio Suite n 2 in F Major, HWV 427 - ….”Thank you carmelo again for playing your music whith heart and soul. It is always a pleasure to listen and to see your body language, how you always have a well controlled performance. 
It’s a priviledge for us all here in the forum”.
( I know you are very busy at work so you might read it sometime later…)    As here again, played with heart and soul. I compared last time my playing to yours and have to say, about this piece - I like your tempo, and the melodic approach taken. Too many play this fugue too quickly. Very convincing performance of this Fugue. Your approach to Bach's music give meaning to every note. It’s possibly only by playing whith heart and soul. As you do.
And the ending -  good that you hold the last note long enough, I like that.

Thank you carmelo.

Best wishes from a Finland, where spring doesn't really want to come yet…

Stig

P.S. Thank you Carmelo for always these descriptions, very deep, I mean important. I have never been reading these things before. Thank you.