The German harpsichordist and fortepianist Andreas Staier, who will be 69 this year, has some 60-odd recordings to his credit. He is distinguished by the breadth of his repertory, fuelled by avid musical curiosity and explored with great sympathy and probity. However, a few months prior to the pandemic, Staier was diagnosed with primary myelofibrosis, a rare cancer of the bone marrow. Rather than upending his career, the diagnosis seems to have lent it urgency. In fact, Staier returned to a long-cherished desire to compose and completed a new series of harpsichord pieces titled Anklänge (‘Echoes’), which forms the centrepiece of this album.

The programme begins with a series of Preludes and Fugues from Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer’s 1702 Ariadne musica, interspersed with a short fugue from the influential 1725 Gradus ad Parnassum of Johann Joseph Fux, an extended Pavane from Louis Couperin and three pieces by Froberger. Then, following Staier’s six pieces from 2020, Bach’s sublime E major Prelude and Fugue from Book 2 of The Well-Tempered Clavier concludes. If it is not necessarily apparent from listening, we learn from Staier’s booklet notes that the entire programme is intertwined or resonant with Anklänge in one way or another. That said, the spare, angular, pared-down abstractions of Anklänge strike as somewhat incongruous in this richly verdant Baroque garden.

In the D major Prelude and Fugue from the Ariadne, for instance, the Prelude’s resplendent sonorities drench a path for the processional fanfare motifs of the Fugue. Froberger’s Méditation sur ma mort future seems to explore joyous profundities at a stately pace that makes the work’s prevailing seriousness unmistakable. It’s obvious that Staier has a special place in his heart for Bach’s E major Prelude and Fugue. The rich tapestry of the Prelude unfolds in an atmosphere of serenity, leavened here and there by the joy of discovery. The magnificent edifice of the Fugue grows from the E major foundation first disclosed to us in the opening Fischer selection, finally climbing to beatific heights. This is a programme that both challenges and satisfies.

‘Méditation’

Works by JS Bach, L Couperin, Fischer, Froberger, Fux and Staier

Andreas Staier hpd

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This review originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today