The 75th anniversary of the Leipzig Bach Archive was celebrated with the addition of two recently authenticated keyboard works. That means that two entries have been added to the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach works catalog). Both of these are chaconnes, the first in the key of D minor (BWV 1178) and the second in the key of G minor (BWV 1179).
Benjamin Alard at the harpsichord recording music for his The Couperin Family album
This amounts to less than fifteen minutes of new music, so it is unlikely that there will be a major overhaul of any of the current “complete works” collections. However, harmonia mundi will release two digital tracks this coming Friday. These will be performances by Benjamin Alard on two different instruments. He recorded BWV 1178 with a two-manual harpsichord made by Émile Jobin in 2017, using Antoine Vater’s instrument, made in Paris in 1732, as his model. BWV 1179, on the other hand, is performed on “assembled clavichords;” and, to be perfectly honest, I am not quite sure what that means!
As of this writing, I have not found a Web page that is taking advance orders for this new release. Given the brevity of the content, availability will probably be limited to downloads. Release is currently scheduled for this coming Friday, March 6.
