Johann Sebastian Bach: Siciliano from Flute Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major BWV 1031 (piano transcriptions by Wilhelm Kempff and Alexander Siloti)

In the midst of troubling, stressful, turbulent times — occasionally even in the midst of a panic attack — I have found the “Siciliano” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major to be profoundly comforting, both to listen to and to play on the piano.

There’s something about its gentle rise and fall that opens up a space within me, a place of stillness, an encircling place of peace. My breathing slows down, and — for a few minutes at least — my mind stops its anxious racing; I find myself in tune with something eternal.

The “Siciliano” came to me courtesy of a friend who had lately fallen in love with the extraordinary artistry of Yunchan Lim, the South Korean pianist who, in 2022 at 18 years of age, became the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

It was in early February when my friend first showed me this video of Lim performing the “Siciliano.” And that happened to coincide with a particularly crazy, horrifying news day. I remember that I cued up this newfound music on my phone and played it over and over and over again while I drove around, running panicked errands. Could this gentle music stop what was happening in the world? No, not directly. However, it could — and for long moments at a time, it did — help steady my dysregulated nervous system.

The “Siciliano” is originally from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major, but over the years multiple people have transcribed it for piano, including German pianist Wilhelm Kempff and Russian pianist, composer, and conductor, Alexander Siloti. Siloti, who died in 1945, was a first cousin of Sergei Rachmaninoff and a student of Tchaikovsky and Franz Liszt.

It’s the Wilhelm Kempff version Yunchan Lim performs in the video. And you can find videos online of other master musicians playing the Kempff transcription as well, including Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang. There’s even a video that uses James Galway’s flute recording of the “Siciliano” as background music for a montage of nature scenes.

The Kempff piano arrangement is lovely and accessible, and I like to remind myself that even if my handspan means I can’t always stretch to reach the notes and chords exactly as Kempff transcribed them, I can shift up or down a stray D, A, C, or B-flat here and there, to where the notes are within reach and still ring true. This music I’m playing is for me; it’s not a performance.

I should mention that in recent years there have been still-unresolved questions about the authorship of Bach’s Flute Sonata No. 2, with some scholars speculating that the piece was actually composed by Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, or that it could be a reworking of an earlier sonata by Johann Joaquin Quantz.

Whatever its specific origins, I offer it up to you, this “Siciliano,” I pass it along as a potential song of comfort; music that might provide you, too, with some respite in the midst of your own trying times.

Where to find it:
“Siciliano” from Flute Sonata in E-flat Major No. 2 BWV 1031
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Transcribed for piano by Wilhelm Kempff

SONGBOOK: 
Wilhelm Kempff transcription available in multiple songbooks, including:

“J. S. Bach: Ten Pieces Transcribed For Piano by Wilhelm Kempff” songbook available for purchase at the Julliard Store, at Ficks Music, at Sheet Music Plus, at Stanton’s Sheet Music, on Amazon,
or on eBay.
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers, Inc. / Hal Leonard (1986)
ISBN: 9780793557264
Status (2025): In Print

- “Bach: Collected Transcriptions: 26 Piano Transcriptions by Great Composers and Pianists” songbook available for purchase at the Julliard Store, at Ficks Music, on Hal Leonard, on Sheet Music Plus, on Amazon, or on eBay.
Publisher: G. Schirmer (1999)
Series: Schirmer’s Library of Musical Classics
ISBN: 9780793568109
SKU: LB2044
Status (2025): In print


Transcribed for piano by Alexander Siloti

SONGBOOK: 
“The Alexander Siloti Collection” songbook available to access digitally via free membership at the Internet Archive, or available for purchase at CarlFischer.com, on Amazon
Publisher: Carl Fischer (2003)
ISBN:0825847303
Status (2025): In print

FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION:
- Steinway & Sons: Alexander Siloti
- Practising the Piano: The Transcriptions of Alexander Siloti
- Wurlitzer-Bruck Music Antiquarians: Alexander Siloti, Autograph Transcription of J.S. Bach Siciliano (from BWV 1031)
- The Albion Beatnik Bookstore: Siciliano, Spirituality & Saccharin - reflections on Wilhelm Kempff and his Bach transcriptions