In 1750 when Bach began to suffer from blindness before his death in July, BWV 666 and 667 were dictated to his student and son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol and copied posthumously into the manuscript. Only the first page of the last choral prelude BWV 668, the so-called “deathbed chorale”, has survived, recorded by an unknown copyist. The piece was posthumously published in 1751 as an appendix to the Art of the Fugue, with the title Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein (BWV 668a), instead of the original title Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit (“Before your throne I now appear”).

There have been various accounts of the circumstances surrounding the composition of this chorale. The biographical account from 1802 of Johann Nicolaus Forkel that Altnikol was copying the work at the composer's deathbed has since been discounted: in the second half of the eighteenth century, it had become an apocryphal legend, encouraged by Bach's heirs, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and Wilhelm Friedmann Bach. The piece, however, is now accepted as a planned reworking of the shorter chorale prelude Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein (BWV 641) from the Orgelbüchlein (c. 1715).
(source: Wikipedia)

The Sectio Aurea ensemble (artistic director: György Fazekas) commissioned four talented young Hungarian composers to reconsider the final notes of Bach and try to perceive a 21st century message of the “Bachian testament”. Beside them the ensemble performs also Meditation on the Bach Chorale “Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit”, a piece for string ensemble and harpsichord written by the iconic composer Sofia Gubaidulina.

The Sectio Aurea chamber ensemble was founded in 2010, originally for interpreting pieces “declared as missing”: undeservedly forgotten works and transcripts of the music literature. In accordance with its name, Sectio Aurea (Golden ratio) aims to find common meeting points for everything and for everyone in the musical life: for known and lesser-known composers, for the audience, for new contemporary works as well as of music played long time ago. They are looking for new forms, put new pieces in focus and offer new variations or transcriptions of known pieces. In 2012 they launched the Anthology of Young Hungarian Composer Generation (GE ANT), which sets challenges and provides inspiration for contemporary composers along its various programs.