Deux-Elles: DXL1017

Given the stature of Italian music in the Baroque era, it is not surprising to find a vein of Italian musical style running through the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The young Bach took the latest styles and clichés from Vivaldi and Albinoni and studied the music of Frescobaldi and Corelli for counterpoint and structure. Many of the forms in which he worked – including the fantasia, aria, toccata and fugue – were transplanted from Italy during the seventeenth century to find new roots north of the Alps. The pieces recorded here span Bach’s entire working life and show how these stock ideas profoundly influenced all the genres in which he worked.