20 BACH TO NOTRE-DAME Were you stimulated by arrangements or transcriptions of certain Bach pieces for your own interpretation? I examined Leopold Stokowski’s orchestral transcriptions, because he had such an extraordinary imagination.2 I did so for the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (which I am recording here for the first time!), which was ‘nourished’ by the musical ideas of the English conductor, as was the ‘Little’ Fugue in G minor BWV 578. His transcriptions are very inspiring because they force us to get away from the literal interpretation of the original text and use the full organic potential of the instrument. I also tackled the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542 by way of Franz Liszt’s piano arrangement.3 Incidentally, I’m not sure that the Fugue was originally composed to follow the Fantasia; it’s very likely that the two pieces were put together later, simply because they shared the same key of G minor. Liszt was a major composer of the nineteenth century, a prodigious visionary who immediately grasped the expressive and dramatic potential of each piece. In his transcriptions he knew how to make the most of the resources of the modern piano.
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