Did you notice that the Prelude ends with a fermata on the double bar as well as the final half note? Which can only mean . . . you’re supposed to keep going into the fugue after a brief pause. And the fugue is four pages long. So, this is a major (haha) commitment.
Mrs. (Lillian) Freundlich used to tell us that when a very young Myra Hess (google her) auditioned at Juilliard, the panel asked her for her compulsory Prelude and Fugue. And Myra Hess looked at the panel and asked . . . “Which one would you like?” Whoa.
Comments:
Celia: As in she knew all of them well enough to perform them by memory at an audition(?!) Wow!
Helen: Yes. She was a force of nature. She also wrote the most famous piano transcription of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. According to the notes in the publication, she had gone to a live performance, heard it once, went home and wrote it. She was one of those types.
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