Bach Adagio Bwv 974

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero scored an artistic success with her previous EMI disc Gabriela Montero: Piano Recital, consisting of two discs, of which the second consisted entirely of improvisations. With Bach and Beyond, Montero dives into her first all-improvisation disc, and while it is not a completely unqualified success artistically, it can be a refreshing swim.

Bach in a Circle proposes an encounter between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Sufi whirling dervishes, weaved around a programme where the pieces are in a dialogue, questioning the mysteries of the human soul and reflecting the movements of the Universe. Bach in a Circle also explores the ‘recycled’ aspect of musical arrangements : at the beginning of the 20th century, great pianists such as Busoni, Kempff and Siloti transcribed the works of Bach for the modern piano, illustrating the fact that his music calls to be revisited and rediscovered.

Luc Beauséjour, a highly sought-after musician for his virtuosity and the subtlety of his playing on the harpsichord and organ, is never short of ideas when it comes to offering concert programs imbued with refinement. The repertoire heard on this recording, originally written for the harpsichord during the Baroque period, is being played here on piano. If many pianists have played Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, Rameau, and even Couperin and Froberger, few harpsichordists have come to the defense of the harpsichord repertoire on the modern piano with such conviction and audacity. Fascinating!

This 20-disc box set has been entertaining me for several months. Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen set up his own record label to distribute his 1997 Goldberg Variations, recorded on the hoof over two days in Haarlem. Its success prompted him to tackle Bach’s complete keyboard output. And there’s a sense of fly-by-night impetuosity about some of these performances, all taped in the same venue with the same producer, the cycle finally finished in 2009.