bettridge01: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BMV 565, J S Bach
Campbell Bettridge wrote: "How I came about to learn Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Bach has been my favorite composer for as long as I can remember. His complex harmonies, and perfect structure too alluring to not attempt. A combination of recordings by Glenn Gould on piano and Marie Efford-Masefield on accordion led me to Italian Concerto, which I performed internationally on many occasions.
With these successes came a confidence towards performing this type of music.
Friedrich Lips was the most influential person to me when it came to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. After listening to his recording for years, and wondering if it might be impossible to play on a piano accordion, I decided to investigate the possibility of learning it by arranging the work from the original organ score for my piano accordion with 160 bass quint free bass system.
On-and-off, it took about a year to work out the difficult sections and another year to complete arranging and learning the work.
I have since performed the work in many parts of the world, including China a number of times, Russia, and New Zealand.
The recording on YouTube is from a concert in Christchurch for the Canterbury Accordion Association (CAA) in 2002. This is just prior to the Coupe Mondiale in Copenhagen.
It was some years after this, that the recording found its way onto YouTube, because of a request from a friend, to see me in performance. I am happily surprised about the amazing number of views this video (over 1 million) has received, and very glad that we can display the accordion performing this style of music."
