Release Date: 11 December 2020
Label: First Hand Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 5060216340692
Description
The Six Partitas, BWV 825–830 were the first of a series of works for keyboard instruments that Bach published under the general title of Clavierübung (Keyboard Practice). They consist of a set of six harpsichord suites, are amongst the last set of keyboard suites Bach composed and the most technically demanding. In fact, although Bach was age 40 at the time, these were the first of his compositions to see publication.
The Partitas follow the basic form of the Baroque dance suite. An elaborate opening movement is followed by four stylized dances: the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue.
Harpsichordist Asako Ogawa is based in London and actively performs as a soloist and as a continuo player in UK, Europe and Japan. She is also a baroque repertoire coach at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Her main appearances include: the Halle International Handel Festival, Leicester International Music Festival, Faversham Music Festival, London Bach Festival. Brighton Early Music Festival, BBC Radio 3, and the Georgian Concert Society, Edinburgh. Ogawa is also a regular performer at the London Handel Festival since 2008, and one of the official accompanists for the London Handel Singing Competition after winning the Accompanist's Prize in 2007.
Ogawa's recently issued début recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations was praised by the critic Robert Hugill: 'There is a clarity to her approach; every detail of Bach's part-writing is clear'. Ogawa completed her Postgraduate Diploma and Fellowship as a harpsichordist at the Historical Performance Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she has also completed a MMus as a pianist and works as a staff accompanist. She has participated in the international courses and masterclasses given by Bob van Asperen, Colin Tilney, Ton Koopmann, Ketil Haugsand and Christophe Rousset. She studied harpsichord with Nicholas Parle, James Johnstone, and Laurence Cummings, and fortepiano with Steven Devine.
"…[Asako Ogawa's] playing radiated excitement, and a vivid sense of the character of each individual piece." "Particular pleasures include the Gavottes, the Sarabandes in Partitas 3 and 4, the lovely breadth and grandeur of the closing Toccata and the graceful treatment of the final Gigue, which many other pianists turn into a circus act." – Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine, 4 STARS / 4 STARS
Tracklisting
Noxwode, Conor Gricmanis
Tessa Lark, Jon Batiste, Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Edgar Meyer
David de Winter and The Brook Street Band
Alexander Baillie & Nigel Yandell
Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa; Alvaro Cassuto
The Flautadors Recorder Quartet
The Telling
Sarah Cahill
Asako Ogawa
