Little Preludes, Notebook for Anna Magdalena, Bach Inventions

It’s impossible to imagine a musical training without Bach, from children’s music academies to conservatories. Bach is here to stay. When I started teaching children in the 1970s, quite a few of my colleagues were making fruitless attempts to (partially) replace Bach with Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. The children, however, had very little if any enthusiasm for Bartók’s music and their teachers eventually had to back down. Bartók, with all due respect, was no match for Bach.

So what makes Bach’s music so indispensable? Bach’s inventiveness in fusing melody, harmony and rhythm into a logical and coherent narrative is simply astonishing and remains unrivalled even today. For everyone blessed with an ear for music, Bach’s music evokes the same deep emotions as when it was composed some three hundred years ago. Bach was a master of polyphony as well; if you can follow the individual lines in his fugues and make them audible, you’re well on your way to becoming a good pianist.

Jan Vermeulen
Jan Vermeulen is considered one of today’s most prominent fortepiano virtuosos. After his piano studies at the Brussels conservatory, his interest and urge for authenticity pushed him into the direction of historical instruments. His pioneering recording of the sonatas of CM von Weber at the beginning of the nineties marked the start of a flourishing career as a fortepiano artist. Now Jan Vermeulen harvests worldwide fame with the recording of Schubert’s complete piano works for the Label Et’Cetera, an opus magnum which he completed in 2010. Following this project, he was chosen “Musician of the Year 2010’. His extensive discography has received great acclaim from the international press and he is widely praised as “the ideal Schubert interpreter”. Jan Vermeulen’s interpretation marks his mastery .

The latest double CD with works by Robert Schumann is acclaimed and received as one of the most important contributions to the Schumann Year 2010. As a soloist Jan Vermeulen has performed all over Europe. His love for chamber music brought him together with musicians such as Wieland Kuijken, Paul Dombrecht, Christine Busch, France Springuel, Roel Dieltiens, Marcel Ponseele, Anne Cambier and the ensembles Explorations, Il Gardellino a.o.

Since 2014 he forms a four hand duo with Veerle Peeters with whom he has recorded all Schubert’s works for four hand duo on 7 cd’s for the label Etcetera Records. Besides his career as a performer, Jan Vermeulen is also a dedicated pedagogue. He teaches piano, fortepiano and chamber music at the Luca School of Arts in Leuven (Belgium).