Masterclass on the French Suites with Wolfgang Rübsam

Explore some of the beautiful French Suites by J.S. Bach with renowned artist, Wolfgang Rübsam. Rübsam will demonstrate at his lautenwerk and coach advanced students performing at their harpsichords. Students will play movements from these French Suites:

Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813
Suite No. 4 in E♭ major, BWV 815

Special Invitation to WEKA Members

WEKA members are invited to participate in the masterclass as auditors when it is recorded via Zoom. To participate, please email your request to weka@wekaweb.org

Printable Resources for the Masterclass

• Notes on the French Suites
• Score – Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813
• Score – Suite No. 4 in Eb major, BWV 815

Join us for the YouTube Premiere!

Watch this masterclass with us on YouTube, Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 2pm. You’ll be able to live chat with others during the performance.

About Wolfgang Rübsam 
Wolfgang Rübsam is internationally known for his over 100 highly acclaimed organ repertoire recordings of baroque and romantic literature, as well as for his Naxos Bach recordings on the modern piano. Since 2017 he has also made many recordings on the “Lautenwerk,” a special harpsichord with gut strings without dampers, an instrument that Johann Sebastian Bach loved very much because of its cantabile character. When Wolfgang Rübsam won the Grand Prix de Chartres in interpretation in 1973, he became professor of church music and organ at Northwestern University in Chicago / Evanston, Illinois. During his 23-year tenure, he was also university organist at the University of Chicago for the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. In the 14 years following, he taught at the University of Music in Saarbrücken Germany. Rübsam has given numerous concerts and master classes in the USA and in Europe, as well as serving on juries for the most renowned international organ competitions.

About the Lautenwerk
It has only one manual, with one set of gut strings and two sets of jacks to pluck the same 8’ set of gut strings in two different places: one, positioned farther from the nut, for producing a flutey, hooty sound and the other, closer to the nut, for a more nasal timbre. This present lautenwerk also has a brass 4’ set of strings that are there purely for the sympathetic vibration, similar to the effect heard on a Viola d’Amore. That set of 4’ brass strings adds the aliquot “halo” effect because it causes the rather dry sound of the gut stringso have much more of a singing quality. Thus one might be tempted to call this lautenwerk a “Lautenwerk d’Amore”. – by builder, Keith Hill.