Student performance
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András SchiffA student of András Schiff performs Bach's Partita No. 2 in C minor on piano. Watch and play along with the interactive notation.
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2 lessons (0h 45m) · 1 free
Lesson transcript
Bach's C Minor Partita
This is Bach's C minor Partita. It's the second of his six partitas and one of his most perfect keyboard pieces.
Key Characteristics:
- Key: C minor
- Dramatic Quality: C minor is one of the most passionate and dramatic keys in Bach's work. Different tonalities carry unique symbols in Bach's art.
Structure of the First Movement:
The first movement is relatively monumental and consists of three distinct sections:
- Baroque Overture Type Introduction
- Arioso
- Fast Fugal Section
Following the first movement is a sequence of dance movements, known as Galantheris, as Bach referred to them.
The Role of the Player:
As a player, you have to:
- Convey and transport us into these different worlds and characters.
- Simultaneously convey Bach's spiritual message.
Every piece by Bach, including instrumental works, is rooted in spirituality and driven by deep religious belief.
Encouragement for Young Musicians:
I would like to encourage young people to keep playing Bach because:
- It's your daily bread.
- Like actors must keep playing Shakespeare, musicians must keep playing Bach.
- Bach's music is not confined to old instruments or new instruments; it is our common treasure.
Closing Remarks:
S.A. okay, very good. Thank you.
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Meet your guru
Meet your guru
András Schiff is one of the most prominent members of a generation of Hungarian pianists born in the years following the Second World War, along with such artists as Zoltán Kocsis, Dezso Ránki, and Jenő Jandó. Of this remarkable group, Schiff has achieved the greatest international reputation, due not only to his decision to pursue his career outside of Hungary, but also thanks to his finely shaded sense of touch and an impressive memory that allows him to present, in concerts and recordings, large portions of a composer's oeuvre.
Schiff was born in Budapest on December 21, 1953, and studied with Hungarian composer Pal Kadosa and Ferenc Rados (both of whom also taught Kocsis and Ránki), and English harpsichordist George Malcolm. He made his debut in Budapest at the age of 19, following it with concert appearances throughout Europe and the United States. His reputation grew with prizewinning performances at the 1974 Moscow competition and the 1975 Leeds Festival.
András Schiff works with most of the major international orchestras and conductors, but most of his performances of piano concertos by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are directed by himself. In 1999 he created his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, with which he works annually as conductor and soloist, as he also does with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Schiff's style, in which an unusually sensitive touch is combined with an alertness to contrapuntal clarity, has made him one of the foremost Bach interpreters of the day. He has recorded the complete keyboard music of Bach, as well as the complete sonatas and sonata fragments of Franz Schubert, whose introspective keyboard music is well suited to Schiff's temperament. He completed a Beethoven sonata cycle on ECM in 2009, and he was awarded the 2011 Schumann Prize by the city of Zwickau for his interpretation and promotion of Schumann's music. In 2001, Schiff began revisiting and re-recording the works of Bach. In addition to the expected middle-European Romantic works, the music of Béla Bartók and Leos Janácek figures prominently in Schiff's repertoire.
In his MusicGurus courses on Schubert's Moments Musicaux Nos 1, 3 and 4, Bach's Partita No. 2 and Beethoven's Late Piano Sonatas, Schiff takes you inside that interpretive world - sharing how he thinks about voicing, touch, contrapuntal clarity and structure so you can bring real depth and understanding to these works at the keyboard.
