Advice on teaching the Bach E minor Prelude and Fugue

[virtuoso80]

I'm currently working with a student on the E minor Prelude and Fugue from the WTC, book 1. He's a great kid, although eccentric and easily distracted (He talks to me about other stuff effortlessly while he plays, I suspect he has Williams Syndrome...look it up it's interesting). As someone who never studied this particular Prelude and Fugue, I'm looking for any interesting thoughts or advice on performance of it that I can share. It's a somewhat 'mature' piece, and the emotionality of it isn't obvious, so I'm looking for good ways to talk about it with a young student. Anyone have any input?

[steviesteps]

I think that in this case the prelude is more demanding than the fugue.  The biggest difficulty is perhaps realising the orchestral texture of the opening.  I feel the melody is like a flute obligato part which is accompanied by gentle tenuto quavers in the strings, meaning the right hand should be practiced carefully on it's own.  The fugue is also fantastic and if Bach isn't enough to hold his attention, what is?

[virtuoso80]

if Bach isn't enough to hold his attention, what is?

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