Album Notes

It is a pleasure to present two major solo works by J.S. Bach, both supreme achievements in the genre of solo instrumental music. I have played both since my time as a student of Prof. Eliot Fisk at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. As I recently re-approached Sonata BWV 1001 (originally for violin) and Suite BWV 1012 (originally for a cello - with an added string), I experienced something close to a "performer's block". Namely, with all the experiences and improvements as a performer, scholar, and composer that I have gained in the intervening years, I didn't like my own performance of these works. Hence, I have had to re-envision most of the interpretation.

My own preludes and fugues for guitar deal with a genre and tradition that I have always held special. I imposed some limits on myself while composing these works: I decided to use an unapologetically "tonal" language and also to put aside all potentially parodistic elements. The series presented here has been selected from the group composed between May and July 2010. The recording took place the last July.

BK, September 2010