Bach’s Musical Offerings
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Musikalisches Opfer
(Musical Offering), BWV1079 (arr. Raaf Hekkema) [40:48]
4 Canons, BWV1087 (arr. Raaf Hekkema) [4:27]
Canonische Veränderungen
(Canonic Variations) über Vom Himmel hoch, BWV769
(arr. Raaf Hekkema) [22:22]
Calefax (reed quintet)
rec. Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem, the Netherlands, June 2020. DDD/DSD
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
PENTATONE PTC5186840 SACD
[67:39]
There are, proverbially, many ways to skin a cat. I haven’t tried that, but
I have listened to some of the many ways there are to perform Bach’s Musical Offering, ranging from the organ and a small, minimalist
group to a chamber orchestra. Then you can throw caution to the winds and
re-arrange the music for a reed quintet. At this point, both lovers of
‘traditional’ Bach in the manner of Karl Münchinger and outright
period-instrument fanciers should probably get someone to tie them down in
their chair, like Odysseus tied to the mast to hear the Sirens, but for the opposite reason.
The Musical Offering was Bach’s answer to the musical
challenge which Frederick the Great threw at him when he visited his son,
Carl Philipp Emanuel, at the royal court. There’s no doubt that Frederick
was musical – a talented flautist, as exemplified on a Naxos recording of
his music (Naxos Late 2020), he employed a number of musicians, of whom CPE was but one. If you
missed Music for a King, compositions for the Prussian court, you
may be too late for the physical product; it seems now to be download only
(CCS41819, Florilegium). That very fine programme of music by Quantz, the
Grauns, CH and JG, Muthel, Benda, Fasch and CPE Bach opens with the
three-part Ricercar from the Musical Offering.
Having praised the period-instrument Florilegium and the BIS
recording of the Offering from the Japan Bach Collegium and Masaaki Suzuki (Retro Late 2020), you might expect me to throw my hands up in horror at the Pentatone
recording on modern instruments – even including a lupophone, illustrated
in the booklet, in case you didn’t know what it was. In fact, I rather
enjoyed the experience, though I don’t expect to make this recording my
regular port of call for this elusive masterpiece. Elusive, but well caught
in these performances.
The booklet is well worth reading, not least for the suggestion that Bach
was simultaneously poking fun at the new empfindsamer Stil of the
younger composers in Frederick’s employ and stressing the importance of the
fugue – not the royal favourite musical form – and the older styles with
erudite Latin titles.
On the whole, I think Bach would have approved of the arrangement and the
performance, including the rather boogie-woogie rendition of Thematis Regii Elaborationes Canonicae III (track 8). It’s no
coincidence that jazz musicians love Bach and that arrangements like those
of the Swingle Singers work so well.
The Offering alone would make a rather short CD or SACD, so, as
with most recordings, Calefax add arrangements of other Bach compositions,
notably the Canonic Variations on the Christmas chorale Vom Himmel hoch,
with its allusions to other music for the period, including his own
Christmas Oratorio. If anything, that would be a more welcome coupling
for most listeners than the ‘Goldberg’ canons, for harpsichord alone, on the
BIS recording. Again, it’s well realised - I’m just not too sure of the
‘penny whistle’ sound which briefly rounds off the final variation and with
it the whole programme.
The fourteen variations of this work held deep numerological significance
for Bach – apply numbers to the letters of his name and add them up to see
why. He had chosen to wait to become a member of the learned Korrespondierenden Sozietät der musicalischen Wissenschaften
in order to become member No. 14, and
the form of the canonic variations held especial significance for him, as
exemplified by his choosing to hold the score of such a composition for the
Hausmann portrait, reproduced in full in the booklet and in detail on the
front cover.
Calefax have made several recordings for Pentatone. Richard Kraus welcomed Hidden Gems ‘for brilliant wind playing and intelligent
musicianship’ –
review
– and that’s equally true of this Bach release. Only those without open
ears and minds need steer clear.
Brian Wilson
Calefax
Oliver Boekhoorn (oboe, oboe d’amore & cor anglais)
Ivar Berix (clarinet & E-flat clarinet)
Raaf Hekkema (soprano & alto saxophone)
Jelte Althuis (basset horn & bass clarinet)
Alban Wesly (bassoon)
with Arthur Klaassens (lupophone & cor anglais)
