Robert Simpson

Robert Shaw's reading of the B Minor Mass is, in one sense at least, just what one would expect: sober and purposeful, beautifully shaped (Shaw is a master architect), it centers on the chorus. Like all of Shaw's choruses, the Atlanta group has that trademark richness of body and blend, and it sings with utter unanimity as though it were one great voice. Shaw opts for marginally broader tempos than those found in most period-instrument performances but is nowhere near as glacial as some interpreters.

Bach was still writing The Art of Fugue at the time of his death. The work was intended to explore the possibilities of counterpoint, but Bach never wrote dry, academic music. It served its didactic purpose, but always there is warm humanity bursting from it. The Art of Fugue has been arranged for many musical groupings, and is always at best a guess at what Bach had in mind. What Robert Simpson has done here is to transpose the work so that it is playable by a string quartet. He does so without apology–Bach himself was a great transposer–and the results are totally convincing. Simpson knows a thing or two about string quartets (his own are well worth checking out), and he has breathed life into a work that is given a terrific performance here by the Delmé Quartet.

Robert Randolph grew up playing sacred steel music – basically gospel played on pedal steel guitar – on the House of God church in Orange, New Jersey, and began taking his joyous, gospel-infused music out to clubs and into the world.