Jeremy Denk at the Park Avenue Armory
Six Partita Characters in Search of Interpretation
By: Susan Hall - Oct 09, 2025
Jeremy Denk performs the six Bach partitas for keyboard in the Officer’s Board Room of the Park Avenue Armory.
We all come back to Bach. Jeremy Denk never left him. Over the years, Denk’s insights have only deepened. The joy, humor, and play have always been there—but now they are matched by a profound sense of understanding. Denk makes Bach clear and present.
Denk himself seems infused with Bach. Through his delicate hands, sharp intelligence, and large heart, he transfers his sense of the master to an audience of keyed-up listeners.
Each of the six partitas has its own character, and Denk reveals their individual shapes and hidden details as he draws the music forth from his piano. Bach, of course, favored the clavichord—the only instrument of his time capable of true dynamic nuance. Its sound is small beside the modern Steinway, but because it too is hammered, not plucked, it can suggest the same dynamic subtleties that Denk brings to life.
One by one, the partitas take the stage. Each begins with an opening movement—a prelude, sinfonia, fantasia, or toccata—then moves through the stately dance forms: the allemande, courante, and sarabande, sometimes a minuet, and nearly always a concluding gigue.
Each carries its own emotional landscape. Sensual heat and mystery animate the second partita, while a vivacious rondeaux in a minor key surprises the listener. The fifth is sunny and cheerful, though its sarabande dips briefly into melancholy. Denk shows us why the final, sixth partita is often considered among Bach’s greatest works—its tragic weight set against a Tempo di Gavotta of striking vitality.
Denk rarely relies on the sustaining pedal. Once, it could be seen lightly depressed during the F minor sarabande—but even then, the texture remained crystalline. He carries each line seamlessly forward, embedding within it little clusters of Bach’s compressed sound. Dissonance always resolves elegantly into consonance, softened.
Denk’s contributions to the New York music scene are invaluable. This past summer, he offered seven days of charming performances in the glade at Little Island. Young students, in particular, would do well to listen to the audiobook version of his memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine—Denk, ever the humorist, charting the messy, miraculous path of musical learning.
It is often noted that Bach’s partitas were not intended as instructional works but as music to be heard and enjoyed. Yet, when you listen to Denk play them, you want to dance. One hopes that for his next performance of these dance-inspired works, the Armory will clear the chairs—and we’ll all be invited to dance our way through another masterful Denk evening.