Bach. Organ Fantasie BWV 572

The “collaboration” with J.S. Bach’s music started for me in distant 2006, when I attempted to complete one of the greatest fugues he ever wrote - the famous, unfinished counterpoint No 14 from The Art of Fugue. This music haunted my imagination for several months, and I did the completion, including several variations. A few years passed after this experience, and one day I again was looking for a Bach work to arrange for piano. Organ Fantasia in G Major seized my mind as I began to dive into its middle choral part. What harmonies were there! We can see progressions with a clear path to the harmonic language of the late 19th and even 20th centuries. I was amazed and captivated immediately, and I didn’t even want to listen to the original work performed on the organ. The variety of emotions possible to express on the piano, compared to a somewhat limited monumental organ interpretation, allowed me to create unique moments of intimacy in this piece and draw its wide emotional landscape into a full range. I left the last part of the Fantasia almost intact but composed the left-hand part in the first, fast section from scratch.