Prelude in D major BWV 532

It’s quite a few years since I have played this and a lot of parts that I used to be able to rattle off without almost a second thought required considerable practice to get them back to working under the fingers and feet again.
This was the very first piece that the great Ralph Downes ever gave me to learn (at 15 years old) for a subsequent visit to the Royal Festival Hall – I was 14 when I made my first couple of visits. I was lucky that my occasional lessons with him were given at the RFH or at Brompton Oratory where he was organist. He never ever charged me.
I had a little extra coaching during school holidays from Alistair Sampson, either on his home grand piano or on the Dutch Mittenreiter / Flentrop or main school chapel Hill at Eton College which helped considerably to overcome some of the more difficult sections.
I probably don’t play it as well as did in my earlier days unfortunately, but I hope that this performance is not too bad although it is bit uneven in places.
I decided to play it on the shortly to be released Father Willis 1894. Perhaps not the type of instrument that it would be heard on normally but hopefully showing that even a typical Romantic instrument can be a valid vehicle for such works.
The fugue follows separately.