Bach/ Rubsam - Trio Sonatas BWV 525-527 / Prelude & Fugue BWV 543

The first of the sonatas, in E flat major, opens with the lower melodic part announcing a theme, immediately imitated by the upper part, over a continuing bass-line. The C minor Adagio offers an upper part aria, imitated again by the lower melodic part, as the movement unfolds, a procedure followed in the final Allegro, with it's inversion of the original subject in the second half of the movement. The second sonata, in C minor, proposes initially a different texture, with the two upper parts moving together in thirds. The second movement has the two lower parts accompanying a sustained melody, before a reversal of roles. This is followed by a final movement in which the opening interval of a fourth in the upper part subject provides material for the bass accompaniment of the theme in a series of descending fourths. The third of the sonatas, in D minor, provided material for the later A minor Concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord and strings. It opens with an eight-bar theme in the upper part, accompanied in the bass, before the entry in imitation by the second melodic part, again in a form familiar from sonatas for two melodic instruments and basso continuo. There is a fine-spun slow movement in F major and are turn to the original key in a lively final movement that introduces, as it proceeds, a triplet rhythm. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543, was probably written during the composer's time in Weimar. In common with certain other works for organ of this period, the Prelude and Fugue are closely related, the Prelude leading immediately into the Fugue, with it's climax in the concluding section. A native of Germany, Wolfgang Rübsam received his musical training in Europe from Erich Ackermann, Helmut Walcha and Marie-Claire Alain, and in the United States from Robert T. Anderson. Based now in the Chicago area, he has held a professorship at Northwestern University since 1974 and since 1981 has served as University Organist at the University of Chicago. International recognition came in 1973, when he won the Grand Prix de Chartres, Interpretation, and has I continued to grow through his recording career, with over eighty recordings, many of them winning awards. Wolfgang Rübsam performs frequently in major international festivals and concert-halls, including the Los Angeles Bach Festival, the Vienna Festwochen, the Finland Lahti International Organ Festival, London's Festival Hall and the Alice Tully Hall in New York. He gives master classes in the interpretation of early and romantic organ repertoire and in the interpreting of the keyboard music of J. S. Bach on the modern piano.