David Yearsley - Bach: Six Trio Sonatas (2015)

For nearly three centuries Johann Sebastian Bachs six trio sonatas have been the touchstone of organ performance. Their sparkling transparency and ravishing elegance require not only unwavering independence between both hands and feet, but also graceful and nuanced expression from the player. Collected in the late 1720s when Bach was molding his own son, Wilhelm Friedemann, into one the greatest organists of the eighteenth century, these pieces havechallenged and elevated uninterrupted generations ever since. The prize-winning author of Bachs Feet, David Yearsley, plays the sonatas on Cornell Universitys recently completed reconstruction of a Berlin organ from 1706 made by Arp Schnitger, one of Bachs favorite builders. Framing the sonatas on this two CD set is a pair of the masters monumental preludes and fugues, works whose brilliance, complexity, and exuberance have never been surpassed.