BOHM, G.: Chorale Partitas / Preludes and Fugues (Teeuwsen)
It is possible that the twelve-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach, at school in nearby Ohrdruf from 1700 to 1702, may have visited Böhm. It is clear that Böhm’s works, particularly the compositions based on chorales, had a strong influence on Bach’s writing in later years. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian’s second son, later referred to Böhm as his father’s teacher. In his free compositions Böhm follows North German forms, alternating fantasias with conservative fugal writing and dance movements. Böhm’s genius is best seen in the chorale partitas. The form, an innovation by Böhm, is a by-product of the seventeenth-century secular Partita fused with the sacred Chorale Variation. Such diverse works demand highly colourful and contrasting registers of the organ. This recital contains fine examples of both these types of work as well as several of Böhm’s chorale preludes, all of which reveal his musical genius to the full.





























