The Partitas are the first work for harpsichord published by Johann Sebastian Bach. Between 1726 and 1730, the partitas were published separately, one per year, before being brought together in a single collection in 1731. Shortly after his appointment of Cantor of the Leipzig Thomaskirche, Bach decided to devote his Opus I to a fashionable genre: the harpsichord suite, a series of dances of contrasting character, united by the same key and preceded by a prelude.
The Partitas are, to all intents and purposes, Bach's last word on this musical form, the most mature, a sort of collection: each type of dance is explored, with a compositional virtuosity that requires from the performer, in addition to an undisputed technical ability, a depth of reading capable of grasping the mathematical relationshipsthat trace the general architecture.
Lorenzo Ghielmi, one of the most famous interpreters of Bach's works, presents us with a recording in which elegance and measure allow the beauty and formal rigour of these pages to coexist.