Andante

Dr. Michael Sporn approached me in the spring of 2012 with the vision for this project, wanting to commission an orchestration of a number of Bach’s keyboard works. Calling it “Dancing with J.S. Bach,” he wished to create a new dance suite assembled from favorite Bach movements. He provided me with the selections he had in mind, and together we worked to choose the specific movements and set the order of the suite. I have immensely enjoyed this collaboration, arising out of a shared love for the music of J.S. Bach, and the chance to intimately engage with Bach’s music. I cannot claim credit for the inspiration or vision for this suite – Sporn’s foresight and deep appreciation of Bach’s music has given birth to this joyous new work, one that presents Bach’s music in a new context, allowing the music’s power to shine in a new light, illuminating connections between movements composed years apart. I have done my best to reflect Bach’s voice and style in these orchestrations, occasionally filling in counterpoint and adding other textural elements to realize my interpretation of these works for strings. The ornamentation used is inspired by Angela Hewitt’s performances from her CD recordings of Bach’s music, recordings that are also meaningful to Sporn.  This work is commissioned by Michael Sporn for A Far Cry in memory of his wife, Kitte Sporn.