In times of pandemic, Johann Sebastian Bach’s work will have attracted musicians like a magnet, so the year 2021 has brought us countless recordings of several major works. Halfway through the Montreal Bach Festival, here is the most eminent point.
“We almost had the feeling of being illegal […] when we passed the front door of the church in which we were recording. Proof of travel and tests were ultimately no match for the magic of this music. These words by soprano Sabine Devieilhe are printed in the libretto of her new Bach-Hændel record, recorded in December 2020 with her husband Raphael Pichon and the Pygmalion ensemble. Two major works by Bach on the program: the cantata “Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut »BWV 199 and, on the other hand, the joyful cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” BWV 51. This is the vocal record that we remember from the last few months.
As the pandemic has put choral singing in brackets, there is no Passion Where Mass in si. For those looking for orchestral music, Lars Ulrik Mortensen delivered the Suites with his Copenhagen Concerto at CPO in a more intimate version, without percussion or trumpets. It will be recalled that he had already offered us Brandenburg concertos, all equally idealized. For a more toned version of these Brandenburg, a new proposal from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin at Harmonia Mundi cuts a fine figure, outclassing the other new, mollassonne, by Il Gusto Barocco at Berlin Classics.
Strings
If Bach lent himself so ideally to pandemic constraints, it was not only because solo or small-scale recordings more easily conformed to the new standards. Bach is a confidant. He is the ideal composer of introspection. Besides, his music is also the perfect puzzle that the musician can face when life finally gives him some time in front of him. Violinists who found themselves no longer having to take planes to go from one capital to another returned to the Sonatas and partitas. The pianists did the same with The art of running away.
Honor to the violinists, therefore and to Sonatas and partitas. During the pandemic, Augustin Hadelich (Warner) leaned into it in a stunning album that we were quick to tell you about. Fabio Biondi (Naïve) did it too, in June 2020, but his technical means are far from the same. For Tedi Papavrami (Alpha), in October 2020, it is a return to Bach in a more baroque spirit, but, again, a bit laborious (presto of the 1D Sonata).
The big surprise is the discreet arrival, Friday in digital and on December 3 CD in physics, of a new version by James Ehnes at Onyx. Very close to Hadelich, that is to say twirling with a supreme bow technique, its reading is even more stunning. The big difference between Ehnes and Hadelich is the sound substance, the “meat around the bone”. The added value is clear in “Gigue et chaconne” of the 2e Partita, while the prestocrazy 1D Sonata has nothing to envy that of Hadelich. Dazzling, overwhelming, this album leaves you speechless.
Unlike Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, the Cello suites have hardly given rise to vocations. A new proposal is intriguing, however. The Palace of Versailles publishes “The French face of Bach at Versailles”, a performance on the viola da gamba. Gilles Cantagrel explains that while the cello seduced Europe, France remained faithful to the viol. As a skilful storyteller, Cantagrel evokes the “free course of a poetic reverie offered by this oratory art”. The brilliant gambist Myriam Rignol is the perfect mediator to make us discover these suites within the framework of a new universe. We pay attention to the sound incarnation, a little less to the dance.
From the enchanted universe of the viola da gamba, we will jump to that of the lute with a record that extends the magic of the Bach records on the lute or the theorbo signed Hopkinson Smith, Pascal Monteilhet, Paul Beier and Thomas Dunford. The magician this time is Jakob Lindberg on a historic Sixtus Rauwolf lute built in Augsburg around 1590, ideally captured in a small Swedish church. Perfect program in a paragon of serenity.
Keyboards
On harpsichord and organ, the two propositions to be retained have both been published by Harmonia Mundi. The dazzling, peremptory, sometimes visionary Benjamin Alard continues on the harpsichord, the organ and on a more museum-like clavichord an integral of Bach’s landmark work for keyboard. Its volume 5 (3 CDs; one per instrument) is entitled “Toccata – Weimar (1708-1717)” and contains famous organ works (BWV 565), toccatas for harpsichord (BWV 910, 911) and Italian inspired transcriptions (BWV 981 after Marcello).
More nourished in terms of sound (choice of instrument) and musical sensuality, the second book of Well-tempered keyboard by Andreas Staier is one of those records capable of making the harpsichord love even the most refractory. An inventive, luminous interpretation that opens up horizons in musical reading and sound spaces, in line with his Goldberg variations.
The piano takes the lion’s share of the number of releases. Notoriety is not a guarantee of happiness. We can thus ignore the English suites nbone 1-3 mechanics of Vladimir Ashkenazy at Decca, and on the news Goldberg variations by David Fray (Erato) in an absurd acoustic frame of an empty church, combining proximity of hammers and sound that escapes. Once you have passed an endless aria, the approach makes sense, but there is no reason to turn your back on Alexandre Tharaud and Beatrice Rana at the same publisher.
Same cause and same effects: the scope of the artistic purpose of the excellent pianist Elisaveta Blumina, meticulous polyphonist in her “Bach 21” at MDG, bringing together in particular the 2e Partita, the French suite no 6 and the English suite no 6 is reduced by the sound blur.
The great Evgeni Koroliov, who gives us the Partitas nbone 1, 2 and 6 at Tacet, a prepandemic recording, very framed, is this time eclipsed by the fluid, human and luminous Schaghajegh Nosrati who offers us his complete six partitas at AVI. Polyphonic readability, subtle ornamentation, tone: the winner of the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2014 finds its counterpart in the Toccatas with Claire Huangci at Berlin Classics. Joy and freedom, but without ostentation: the version of the young American even slightly surpasses that, very remarkable, of the rare and precious Laurent Cabasso published a little earlier by Paraty.
Daniil Trifonov, on the other hand, used the pandemic break to look into The art of running away. When one has recourse to the piano, there are two avenues: to use it in imitation of the harpsichord, or for its own expressive possibilities. Trifonov chose the piano as an instrument of resonant narrative and romantic expression. We already explored this track with Filippo Gorini earlier this year, but Trifonov creates a fascinating environment (works of Bach’s sons) in an album “Bach.” The art of life ”particularly aptly named.
Bach is, finally, the transcriptions, the music intended for small groups. Two Quebec records from Atma have their voice here: the CD au overcoat by Mélisande Corriveau and Éric Milnes, already presented here, to which is added “Autour de Bach” by Pentaèdre. About forty minutes of Bach transcribed for winds are coupled with a quintet by David Malanska (1943-2017), a very affordable work including reminiscences of Bach’s choruses.
The star record in this area is signed by the Café Zimmermann ensemble. ” The imaginary Music Book of JS Bach “. The idea of this imaginary notebook is to offer an intimate version of movements (for example arias) composed by Bach shortly before his death. We hear, in addition to the arias transcribed for instruments, the Trio sonata of the’Musical offering in an atmosphere of concentration which leads Alpha to title his notice “Gospel without words”.
The great composer of universal comfort has been spoiled and will have spoiled us this year.