New Bach Video Fugue n 24 in B minor BWV 869 Last fugue of WTC1!

Dear Friends,
We've finally reached the end of this long and hopefully enjoyable adventure to discover Bach's WTC1....
I must confess that in the year since I began my first preludes and fugues, I never thought I'd reach this level, and for this I owe a heartfelt thank you to all my friends on the forum who have supported me every step of the way. The view from the top is magnificent! So much work, but so much satisfaction... we've made it!
Bach Fugue n 24 in B minor BWV 869 (à 4), considering the slow tempo,is probably the longest of the whole work. Spitta  says of the theme that it "proceeds slowly, sighing, saddened and pain-stricken", and finds in the whole fugue "the expression of suffering so intensified as to be almost unendurable", but bids one beware "of regarding the piercing bitterness of its effect as a mere result of a contrapuntal skill". He adds: — "From this point of view indeed it is in no way remarkable and even if it were. Bach has proved again and again that he could preserve a sweet and pleasasing character even with the greatest intricacy of construction. No, it was his purpose
to produce a picture of human misery, to give it full utterance here, in his favorite key, and at the close of this glorious work in which all his deepest sympathies with human feeling had found expression. For to live is to
suffer." I cannot imagine that Bach "wished to produce a picture of human misery"; such a conception, besides, does not come within the limits of my other considerations. I may however say that the key of B- minor, the same
in which Bach wrote his "Hohe Messe" and many other works of the highest importance, threw him into a state of inspired absorption so that he opened up his inmost soul, and told us of his griefs. But it is no ordinary grief, no feeble groaning and sighing, but a Faust-like search after truth, a true soul-struggle which reveals itself within these bold harmonic enclosures. The supposed uglinesses and intolerable hardnesses disappear entirely from the theme, and indeed from the whole fugue, as soon as one has gained a clear conception of the harmonies and of the metrical structure.
I hope you enjoyed this journey and that you weren't too bored. Here's the last fugue. Enjoy...
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/MLK68p093Kc

carmelo.paolucci wrote:

Dear Friends,
We've finally reached the end of this long and hopefully enjoyable adventure to discover Bach's WTC1....
I must confess that in the year since I began my first preludes and fugues, I never thought I'd reach this level, and for this I owe a heartfelt thank you to all my friends on the forum who have supported me every step of the way. The view from the top is magnificent! So much work, but so much satisfaction... we've made it!
Bach Fugue n 24 in B minor BWV 869 (à 4), considering the slow tempo,is probably the longest of the whole work. Spitta  says of the theme that it "proceeds slowly, sighing, saddened and pain-stricken", and finds in the whole fugue "the expression of suffering so intensified as to be almost unendurable", but bids one beware "of regarding the piercing bitterness of its effect as a mere result of a contrapuntal skill". He adds: — "From this point of view indeed it is in no way remarkable and even if it were. Bach has proved again and again that he could preserve a sweet and pleasasing character even with the greatest intricacy of construction. No, it was his purpose
to produce a picture of human misery, to give it full utterance here, in his favorite key, and at the close of this glorious work in which all his deepest sympathies with human feeling had found expression. For to live is to
suffer." I cannot imagine that Bach "wished to produce a picture of human misery"; such a conception, besides, does not come within the limits of my other considerations. I may however say that the key of B- minor, the same
in which Bach wrote his "Hohe Messe" and many other works of the highest importance, threw him into a state of inspired absorption so that he opened up his inmost soul, and told us of his griefs. But it is no ordinary grief, no feeble groaning and sighing, but a Faust-like search after truth, a true soul-struggle which reveals itself within these bold harmonic enclosures. The supposed uglinesses and intolerable hardnesses disappear entirely from the theme, and indeed from the whole fugue, as soon as one has gained a clear conception of the harmonies and of the metrical structure.
I hope you enjoyed this journey and that you weren't too bored. Here's the last fugue. Enjoy...
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/MLK68p093Kc

I thank you carmelo for this: It is beautiful!
”….to produce a picture of human misery, to give it full utterance here…..”      Well, this might be the ”deepest” Bach interpretation…you have made among these WTC 1. Thank you carmelo.

And now:
Congratulations Carmelo!
And thank you carmelo for your exceptional effort! Thank you for your tireless work, your positive attitudes throughout this WTC 1 project from start to finish.
Outstanding! Super job! You are wonderful!

And thanks to you, I find it also great to see this nice friendship developing between forum members during your WTC project.

You are one of a kind, and no one else play these Preludes and Fugues the way you do. Your music is an enjoyment for many people.

Wholeheartedly

Stig