This is not Bach.

I guess that everyone has a story with Bach: musicians, music lovers, classical players, improvisers, composers, rock- as well as folk musicians. Most of these stories probably start with a recording that was playing at home, and very likely it was the Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould. However, I did not have this early positive exposure to Bach’s music ― on the contrary, I feared it. The first time I played Bach was at the age of 12, at the National Youth Competition in Germany. I performed the E-flat major Sonata with my father accompanying me on the piano. The jury had only two comments: ‘find a better pianist’ and ‘this is not Bach’.

Years ago, a friend of mine gave me his ‘completion’ (only a few bars) of the A major sonata’s first movement. I was so electrified by the idea that one can do this: lay hands on a masterpiece, restore it, be Bach’s assistant, apprentice, or student. Over several years I worked on my own completion of this piece, testing it in various performances, correcting, destroying, reconstructing until I ended up with the version you hear on this recording.

I started working on other pieces that I found worthy of getting some sort of makeover or ‘explanation’. The urge and necessity to do this has very much been a result of teaching.

So here is the result of my journey… so far. And for the first time, people might be right in saying: This is not Bach! Indeed, it is not. But it is his spirit, and that’s what matters most to me.

Kersten McCall.