Mr Black's program will present works by Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) alternating with selections from The Art of the Fugue by J. S. Bach (1685-1750). Froberger was one of the seminal harpsichord and organ composers of the mid-sixteenth century. He was very widely travelled – studying in Italy and France, and spending time in England, Austria, and Germany. He was, more than anyone else of his time, responsible for spreading throughout Europe the different compositional style of far-flung musical centers. He was a friend and colleague of the great French lute composers of his day – and much of his harpsichord music is highly lute-influenced. In Italy and from his great teacher Frescobaldi he learned to write vocally-inspired keyboard counterpoint, and also discovered, and himself greatly developed, the toccata form, in which continuity and momentum are achieved through contrast and surprise. Froberger was, above all, known for the emotional content and expressive freedom of his music.

Bach’s Art of the Fugue is a monumental, unified work in twenty movements. Even though it was left unfinished at the composer’s death, it has a powerful and convincing overall shape. However, it is also fascinating to juxtapose parts of this work with works of the earlier Froberger, whose music Bach knew well and studied. The two are different stylistically but heading in similar directions with respect to expressiveness and intensity of purpose.

This afternoon’s program is chosen to create an overall shape of its own – albeit one devised by the performer, not directly by either of the composers. The harpsichord used was made in 1978 by Keith Hill. It is an instrument in the German style, creating sounds similar to some of those that each of these composers would have known.