Questions re Toccata of Bach's Partita No 6 in E minor BWV830

[symphonicdance]

I am planning to take Bach’s Partita No 6 in E minor (complete) as part of my programme for the FTCL (UK) exam.  A few questions on interpretation:-

What tempo would you use to play the Toccata?  There appears a moderately wide range of tempo used between Gould, Hewitt, Schiff and other famous (Bach) pianists.

If a relatively fast tempo is picked, then how much faster (or slower?!) should be used to play the Corrente, Air, Tempo di Gavotta and Gigue?

Do you hold the notes and/or use pedal in those arpeggio-like set of notes (bars 1-2 and those similar thereafter)?

Do you play tempo rubato and/or accel+rall for the set of notes in bars 3-4 (and those similar thereafter)?

Thanks.

[iratior]

The gems of the Toccata are the septuplets.  It would be a shame to choose for the Toccata any tempo except the one that bests accentuates these.  They show Bach at his century-ahead-of-his-time best.  Once you get to the fugue section, the appropriate tempo would appear to coincide with that of WTC II f-minor prelude;  the melodies begin similarly.  I suggest having the allemande about same tempo as WTC II g-minor prelude;  the courant, WTC I Bb-major fugue;  the air, WTC 1 B-minor prelude.

[49410enrique]

with these works especially you have the ability to research historical trends on their interpretation, i.e. norms and preferences over time evolve, what people did 120 years ago can many times be different from even a quarter century later or even today.  the above advice is great, but also weigh in on the possibility of the tempo you want in order to say what you want to say, i.e with these standards that are performed and interpreted so much, the real magic, and challenge, lies in trying to, while appropriate to the style, saying something original, be refreshing while remaining to your artistic view of what the composer meant but in the end you are the artist, you are charged with deciding how you want to perform the work.  i'd probably learn it to a low end basic tempo range and durring study use that as discovery to what i like and don't like and what i'd like to do, then i'd consult other sources to see if it is in line , historically etc., with common practices.