Jan-Willem Rozenboom

Name: Jan-Willem Rozenboom - Wonkapodia
Start: 2026-11-22T14:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-11-22T23:59:00+01:00
Location: Theater Speelhuis

Muziek

Pianist Jan-Willem Rozenboom is now regarded as a Bach specialist.

With his clear voice-leading and attention to tone, his transparent Bach interpretations are a feast for the ear. After shows featuring the Goldberg Variations and Bach transcriptions, he now turns his hand to ‘the pianist’s bible’.

In 2020 he began preparing for the recording of these 48 pieces, which he made in the summer of 2025. 24 preludes and 24 fugues in all the minor and major keys. Every prelude has a different character. And every fugue a different structure and colour. This is music that never bores and that you can spend a lifetime exploring. Rozenboom first talks about the background to these pieces: about the tuning of the strings, which was still evolving at the time, about the keys and their characteristics, and about the fugues. This form of counterpoint is often called the pinnacle of polyphony. Treat yourself to an afternoon immersed in the music of Bach, which has survived for more than three centuries and will effortlessly add another three to that.

The Prelude in C major is perhaps the most famous work in Das Wohltemperierte Klavier. It was the inspiration for Gounod’s Ave Maria. Jan-Willem Rozenboom: “Whenever I start this prelude, my heart rate drops. A certain calm comes over me. The last fugue, in B minor, is also an audience favourite. That piece is composed in a Schoenberg-like way, though still tonal, of course.”

De Volkskrant: “Rozenboom’s playing is marked by a combination of level-headedness and his deep respect for the composer.”