– Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 — 28 July 1750)
– Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
– Year of recording: 1991
Sonata for keyboard in D major, BWV 963 (BC L182), written in 1704.
00:00 – I. Allegro maestoso
03:15 – II. Grave
04:41 – III. Fugato
07:42 – IV. Adagio – Fuga (Thema all’imitatio Gallina Cuccu)
This is a rarely played, but playful sonata that’s also the only harpsichord sonata that we know by Bach (the Sonata in A minor should be regarded as incomplete). It consists of a prelude (allegro) revealing the influence of Kuhnau, followed by an extensive fugue with a concluding Adagio. Finally, Bach lets us hear that he has mastered the technique of the fugue even in jest namely in a Thema all’Imitatio Gallina Cucca, or rather a theme in which a rooster and a hen are imitated. But the theme is also imitated because that is precisely the witticism of a fugue.
