We made it full circle! We’re closing out our journey through the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier with the final installment, the prelude and fugue in B minor, in the 1962 reading by the “icon” of the historically informed performance movement, Gustav Leonhard.

B minor, as the comfortable, two-sharp key that it is, projects this air of home-coming and familiarity. The prelude is marked “Allegro”, set in cut-time, and written in two voices except for a few chords towards the end. It features syncopations, appoggiaturas and quick ornamental turns which give it a sound closer to what Bach’s sons Carl Philipp or Wilhelm Friedemann could have been writing at the time.

The fugue, in 3 parts, is built on a long theme that could belong in a concerto movement or an orchestral suite. It’s set in 3/8 and includes quick 16th-note passages, both stepwise and in “bariolage” style, and wide 8th-note leaps.

In his overall analysis of WTC Book II, Christoph Wolff concludes that it “fits well within Bach’s numerous wide-ranging projects of the 1730’s”, as the issue of leaving a musical legacy mattered very much to him. In this sense, WTC II is more than just a companion or continuation to WTC I. Bach expands and develops the first book, departs somewhat from its educational purpose, and addresses more the scholar than the student in us, pushing the boundaries of what he knew was possible.