Bach Melodic

This is a glorious disc. Simply glorious. Anderszewski and Bach have long been congenial bedfellows and the Pole’s playing here is compelling on many different levels. To start with, there’s the sense of sharing the sheer physical thrill of Bach’s keyboard-writing. This is particularly evident in faster movements such as the fierce and brilliant fugal Gigue that concludes the Third Suite, or, in the E minor Fifth Suite, the extended fugal Prelude and the outer sections of its Passepied I. Common to all is a sense of being fleet but never breathless, with time enough for textures to tell.

The father of the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the greatest composers of all time. His works, covering a wide range of instruments and voice types, continue to flourish to this day, forming a core part of musical learning. This special disc brings together the Trio Sonatas BWV525–530, works that originally appeared in a manuscript of works for organ. In this form, the pieces naturally became part of Bach’s teaching – a notable contribution to his oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann’s virtuoso organ technique.

Masterpieces Played by Masters asserts the back cover of this reissue confidently. That gives the wrong idea of the flavor of this little disc of chamber music from the middle eighteenth century, originally recorded in 1978. The instruments are all either of the relevant period or copies of such, making this one of the earlier applications of historical-performance principles to pre-Classical music. The "Masters" part of the equation is justifiable enough; flutist Barthold Kuijken and the other players involved all had long careers in the Dutch heartland of the historical-performance movement, and, unlike so many other players trained primarily in the Baroque repertory, they take naturally to the light charm of the pieces played here.

The six Trio Sonatas for organ seem to belong to the earlier years of Bach's period in Leipzig, dated conjecturally to 1727, apparently devised for the use of the composer's eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, who became one of the most distinguished organists of his generation in Germany. The sonatas demand clarity of performance and distinct enunciation of the two melodic lines and bass pedal part.

This recording features concertos for oboe and its alto cousin, oboe d'amore, by Bach and Telemann. The Bach concertos are reconstructed from published harpsichord concertos that Bach is believed to have originally written for oboe and oboe d'amore. The Telemann concertos for these instruments exist in manuscript form.

TAKE BACH is another in the history of recordings which treat the music of Bach in an experimental way. The approach of the Jacques Loussier Trio with pianists Güher and Süher Pekinel is one of melding Bach's concerti into jazz pieces through arrangement and improvisation. The idea is logical, as Baroque music is based often on a "figured bass," or set of symbols which the instrumentalist of the time (usually a keyboard player) would know how to interpret and build chords based upon the performance aspects of the time.

The German label CPO, consistently dedicated to underappreciated music, has brought along many recordings of unfamiliar works ranging in status from central to the literature to wholly unworthy of revival. One of the most distinguished, and consequential, projects that CPO has undertaken is its recording of the complete Symphonies Concertantes of Johann Christian Bach as performed by the Hanover Band under Anthony Halstead.