At the Abbey of the Dormition, Jerusalem, pianist Ofra Yitzhaki performs a number of Preludes and Fugues from Book 1 of J.S.Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier

 

Dr. Ofra Yitzhaki (Avi Levine)

On the mild evening of November 20th 2025, a concert took place at the Dormition Abbey, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem. Fr. Simeon Gloger OSB welcomed guests and introduced the artist, pianist Ofra Yitzhaki. The festive event was the first  concert to take place in the Divan (hall) since the Covid-10 pandemic. Israeli-born Ofra Yitzhaki opened her recital by calling attention to the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach believed that the aim of all music should be "the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul". 

 

The program comprised the first twelve Preludes and Fugues of Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier, performed on the Abbey's Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano. Although Bach did not specify for which keyboard instrument the WTC was written, it is assumed by many that the work was played on the clavichord (an instrument of limited volume but capable of dynamic variety) or on the harpsichord, with some pieces possibly played on the organ. As to the new concept of "well-tempered" tuning, just how equal Bach’s system of tuning was is debatable, but there is no doubt that it made playing in all keys possible (without retuning the instrument) with some keys probably more equal than others. On the ornamental title page of the 1722 copy of WTC 1, Bach inscribed: "For the use and profit of the musical youth desirous of learning, as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study". For his own pupils, this collection became the text for advanced study in both keyboard playing and composition. Bach completed WTC 1 at age 37, the work marking a major stage in his development, revealing his large-scale organisational ability and intellectual control. American harpsichordist/musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick referred to WTC 1 and 2 as an "eternity of experience" representing Baroque keyboard writing at its highest peak and as “one of the most remarkable products of the human mind.”

 

Ofra Yitzhaki invites the listener to join her in her personal decoding of Bach's music. Enlisting the warm, powerful timbre of the Grotrian-Steinweg piano, her playing spells out the result of deep enquiry into the construction, the emotional- and dynamic ranges and the development of each of the pieces, of tempi and of the contrasts both within- and between the pieces, as well as the experience of hearing the pieces in sequence. She commences with a rapid, dramatic, forthright reading of the Prelude in C major, the C-sharp major Prelude, on the other hand, charming in feather-light textures, its Fugue retaining the Prelude's lightweight trait. Following the slow introspective and imaginative C-sharp minor Prelude, richly bathed in the sustaining pedal, the ensuing five-voiced triple fugue, probing and mysterious, grows into an architectonic mammoth work of dense, overlapping stretti. The joyful key of D major takes over with the sunny, buoyant Prelude, the artist reflecting on the extemporaneous disposition of its conclusion. And how uniquely majestic is the D-major Fugue, teeming with Bach's explicit ornaments and noble dotted rhythms, as Yitzhaki signs out with a hearty flourish.

 

The most substantial Prelude in Book One, No. 7 in E-flat Major, is different. (Indeed, the key of E-flat major is rarely heard in Baroque music, but, in view of the structure of Bach’s project, it had, of course, to be included. Johann Mattheson defined the key of  E-flat major as “pathetic, always serious, plaintive, the opposite of lascivious".)  In this piece, one of the more extensive and ambitious components of the collection, Yitzhaki guides the listener through the course and its complexities - the semiquaver preamble, the chorale-like fugato introducing a subject in rising fourths and the double fugue combining both musical ideas, then soaring to a striking pedal point at the end. (I wonder if Bach might have played this Prelude on the organ.) The partner Fugue was playful and nimble, its chromaticism adding a gently teasing touch to the rich 3-voiced weave.

 

As to Yitzhaki's reading of Prelude and Fugue No.8, each takes a fragile, mysterious spiritual aura as its starting point. Strict Baroque performance requirements would proceed in terraced dynamics. Yitzhaki, however, enlists the resources of the modern piano, building inspiring, swelling and recoiling dynamic paths in conjunction with textural density in both pieces. The extravagant use of diminished chords, Neapolitan seconds and tritone leaps endow the stately, richly ornamented Prelude its stressed, dark character, then to proceed to the pairing of emotion with contrapuntal sophistication in the Fugue. With the audience left suspended in a moment of hushed contemplation, the sound of church bells served as a reminder of where we were.

 

400 years on, performing the Well-Tempered Clavier is still fraught with decision-making that ranges from the choice of instrument to how to interpret the notes on the page (Bach left no indications as to speed and expression.) Is it right or wrong to play Bach on the piano, given that, in his time, this instrument hardly existed? Bach actually did play an early piano by Silbermann, offering the builder advice on how it might be improved, but the Silbermann fortepiano is a far cry from the modern piano. Most importantly for performer and listener, however, the fascination of Bach's music resides in the many possible attitudes from which it can be viewed, and in the manifold aspects it can assume. An artist of great versatility and splendid technical skill, Dr. Ofra Yitzhaki reads into the Preludes and Fugues with much fantasy, daring and passion, with articulacy, grace, delicacy and sensitivity, addressing the WTC’s structures, its gamut of moods, emotions and conundrums with personal conviction. It was an evening to remember! The Divan, an exquisite, small hall well suited to chamber music performance, boasts fine acoustics. There was much to enjoy from the  timbre of the Grotrian-Steinweg piano. Behind the piano, the stage wall displays a large painting of The Last Supper by Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015). 

 

Two encores concluded the Bach recital - the meditative chorale prelude "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ), followed by the rousing "Zion hört die Wächter singen" (Zion hears the watchmen sing).