Daniil Trifonov – BACH: The Art of Life (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

“This album is, in many ways, about love: the romantic love between husband and wife; familial love between parents and their children; and love for the Creator.”

Daniil Trifonov’s new album, Bach: The Art of Life, explores the scientific, emotional and spiritual fibre of Bach’s work. The exceptional Russian pianist, famous for his romantic interpretations of Rachmaninoff and Chopin, now extends his recording palette to Baroque piano music and presents an incredibly spiritual programme for Deutsche Grammophon based around Bach and his sons.

The centrepiece of the album is The Art of Fugue, one of Bach’s late masterpieces written in the last ten years of his life. In the early and mid-eighteenth century – and thus before the Enlightenment – music, like other scientific disciplines, was seen as a means of expression to explain the laws of nature and thus the will of God. Consequently, the polyphonic construction of the work was a central means for the composer to musically interpret his environment. According to Trifonov, the highly spiritual character of the piece represents ‘the pioneering musical realisation of Bach’s personal, religious, scientific and humanistic knowledge’.
However, it is not only Bach, but also many of his descendants who make up the strength of this unique programme. Collective musical practice was an integral part of the Bach family’s daily life, with each child developing his or her own style. The booklet of notes for Anna Magdalena Bach, compiled by Bach himself, summarises these personal and intimate family studies on paper, which Trifonov complements with Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach’s “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” (Ah, shall I tell you, Mama) variations, as well as works by Johann Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, among others.

Trifonov, an exceptional virtuoso, succeeds in doing justice to polyphonic music with his great technical precision and total artistic commitment. His sensitive and profound understanding of Bach’s philosophy and compositions is a wonderful setting for this comprehensive overview of the composer’s life and musical legacy, which the performer generously offers to his listeners.

Tracklist:
1. Daniil Trifonov – I. Allegro
2. Daniil Trifonov – II. Presto
3. Daniil Trifonov – No. 8 in E Minor
4. Daniil Trifonov – IV. Rondo in C Minor, H. 283
5. Daniil Trifonov – Thema (Allegretto)
6. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 1
7. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 2
8. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 3
9. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 4 (Minore)
10. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 5 (Maggiore)
11. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 6 (Tempo di Minuetto)
12. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 7
13. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 8 (Schw”abisch, Non allegro)
14. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 9 (Minore, Tranquillo)
15. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 10 (Maggiore, Tempo I)
16. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 11
17. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 12 (Alla Siciliano)
18. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 13
19. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 14
20. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 15 (Pi`u andante)
21. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 16 (Tempo I)
22. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 17 (Minore)
23. Daniil Trifonov – Var. 18 (Maggiore, Allegro)
24. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
25. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Aria “Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zur”ucke”, BWV 509 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
26. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Minuet in A Minor, BWV Anh. 120 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
27. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Minuet in F Major, BWV Anh. 113 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
28. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Polonaise in F Major, BWV Anh. 117b (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
29. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: [Polonaise] in D Minor, BWV Anh. 128 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
30. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Choral “Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille”, BWV 511 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
31. Daniil Trifonov – Petzold: Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
32. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 116 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
33. Daniil Trifonov – C.P.E. Bach: Polonaise in G Minor, BWV Anh. 125 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
34. Daniil Trifonov – J.S. Bach: Minuet in C Minor, BWV Anh. 121 (Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
35. Daniil Trifonov – St”olzel: Bist du bei mir (Formerly Attrib. J.S. Bach as BWV 508, Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725)
36. Daniil Trifonov – V. Chaconne (After Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 by J.S. Bach, Arr. for Piano)
37. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 1
38. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 2
39. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 3
40. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 4
41. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 5
42. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 6 [per Diminutionem] in Stylo Francese
43. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 7 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem
44. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 8
45. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 9 alla Duodecima
46. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 10 alla Decima
47. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 11
48. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus [12] [rectus]
49. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus 12 inversus
50. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus [13] [rectus]
51. Daniil Trifonov – Contrapunctus [13] inversus
52. Daniil Trifonov – Canon [in Hypodiatessaron] per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu
53. Daniil Trifonov – Canon in Hypodiapason (Canon alla Ottava)
54. Daniil Trifonov – Canon alla Decima in Contrapunto alla Terza
55. Daniil Trifonov – Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta
56. Daniil Trifonov – [Contrapunctus 14] (Compl. by Daniil Trifonov)
57. Daniil Trifonov – Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Transcr. Hess for Piano)