Bach: Keyboard Partita No.3 in A Minor, BWV 827 (Blechacz, Anderszewski)

Bach’s 3rd Keyboard Partita isn’t often programmed and isn’t particularly well-known, perhaps because its mood of gentle restlessness is less immediately striking than what you find in the other 5 partitas. Yet it’s a wonderful set. It opens with a little gem of a Fantasia – a 2-part invention that’s a model of intelligently deployed imitative counterpoint, descending sequences, and contrary motion. It looks unassuming on paper, yet it’s strangely moving in a way that’s hard to articulate. An elegant Allemande follows, and a perky Corrente with delicious dotted rhythms. The Sarabande is a strangely orchestral thing, and sounds almost like a transcribed triosonata. The use of triplet semiquavers gives it a murmuring, introspective air. The Burlesca is a taut and rather funny thing – note its Scarlatti-esque use of parallel 4ths, and the descending run in octaves at [13:29]. The Scherzo – the only piece Bach ever gave this title to – is a dramatic and fleet-footed, full of Vivaldi-like energy. The closing Gigue