Bach, Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903

One of the greatest champions of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 20th century was Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter became synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich in a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter - he was born in Thuringia and studied in Dresden and Leipzig - absorbed the Bach tradition at its source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to s his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. Richter's own style of keyboard playing also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music.