To celebrate Bach’s 332nd birthday—he was March 31, 1685 in the town of Eisenach, in what is now Germany—we’ve selected this excellent performance of the “Fugue” from his Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001, performed by Simon Powis. Originally from Australia, Powis earned a doctorate in guitar from Yale and has been living in New York for many years now. Although he has performed, taught and given master classes all over the world, the talented and personable guitarist is perhaps most widely known these days for his highly regarded online classical guitar pedagogy: Classical Guitar Corner. This Bach piece has been played and recorded fairly often by guitarists, including Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, and Narciso Yepes, to name just three past masters, but we think you’ll agree that Powis handles it beautifully! In the video, Simon plays a guitar made by a luthier from western Australia named Paul Sheridan.
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