BACH TRANSCRIPTIONS
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin
CHANDOS CHAN 9835 [73'
03"]
Crotchet
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The first sound heard on this CD is a fortissimo organ which then dissolves
into the orchestra - Bach's C minor Passacaglia and Fugue is briefly
heard as he intended before master-orchestrator Respighi lavishly
expands the music's colour-potential. A couple of hundred of years are thus
linked and we're off on an adventure, one taking Bach's 18th-century genius
- the foundation of Western music - with pieces for organ and unaccompanied
violin reflected in the personalities and orchestral skills of later composers.
Elgar's voice is always discernible in his version of the C minor Fantasia
and Fugue - the slow movement of the Second Symphony is initially called
to mind (a funeral march suggested by clearly differentiated timpani and
bass drum strokes). The players relish the Fugue's extrovert orchestration
with Slatkin, in his second recording of it, driving the music forward
exuberantly. Slatkin has chosen three other English Transcriptions. Vaughan
Williams uses the black-and-white medium of strings for his robust re-working
of a Fugue - a brisk walk in bracing country air - while Granville
Bantock in 1945 might well have provided a bedrock of optimism with his
plush setting of the indelible melody that is Sleepers Awake. Slatkin leads
this with maximum expression. Holst's joyous, dancing version of `Fugue
a la gigue' takes Bach's single musical subject through the orchestra picking
up instruments en route until, at 2'30", trombones (Holst's instrument) cut
through the texture as the arrangement's crowning glory - a brilliant piece
played here with infectious panache.
Max Reger - a composer shamefully underestimated in some quarters
- provides a richly harmonised dressing for a chorale prelude and moves the
soul. Reger's deeply felt arrangement shouldn't surprise because, like Bach,
he thought of music in absolute terms. Here, Reger's intellect and heart
eloquently merge in Bachian tribute in this affecting performance by the
BBC Philharmonic's strings.
This CD is notable for two first recordings. Honegger's C major Prelude
and Fugue has astringent textures smoothed by mellifluous saxophones. With
a bass drum to punctuate and underpin and a wonderfully vulgar trumpet trill
to conclude - there's nothing like a bit of French irreverence! - Swiss-born
Honegger's lean and individual timbres intensify Bach's counterpoint with
point and style. Joachim Raff, also Swiss-born (but German) and the
only composer-arranger here not to straddle the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, comes up with a sure-fire winner. His orchestration of the Chaconne
that closes Bach's D minor unaccompanied violin Partita is full of many
felicitous touches. If Brahms (especially), Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky
all come to mind, these aren't bad composers for Raff to have on his CV.
The broad, emotional statement at 6'00" is particularly memorable, so too
(at 10'00") the suggestion of music Bruckner had yet to compose, a striking
episode appended by a gorgeous cello melody stamped Mendelssohn. A real discovery
and, amazingly, this hugely enjoyable work is only now recorded.
To counterbalance Respighi's opulence, Schoenberg's equally ambitious
and personal scoring of the St Anne Prelude and Fugue dines out on multifarious
orchestral hues and strives for resolute power (climactically achieved by
Slatkin's structure-conscious conducting). Schoenberg never loses the line
of the music despite his requirement to utilise the entire instrumental armoury
- and I hope he intended some of his mixes with a sense of humour: don't
worry if you raise a smile during the Prelude!
The recording quality happily marries presence, detail and space. I did feel
the Respighi to be a tad diffuse for my taste with violins lacking a little
body, but the cathedral of sound created here is impressive. A suspicion
of an edit at 0'57"in track 2 (Respighi's Fugue) aside, this is a super CD
- one thoughtfully planned regarding key and mood which encourages continuous
listening. This `Bach through the ages' release eloquently testifies to Bach's
incorruptible invention and how successfully successors have illuminated
his music through the orchestral medium. The BBC Philharmonic respond
whole-heartedly to Slatkin's zest and imagination: his innovative programming
in future releases (with the BBCSO) will no doubt further enhance Chandos's
catalogue.
Reviewer
Colin Anderson
and Lewis Foreman adds
There was a time when romantic orchestral transcriptions of Bach's keyboard
and instrumental works were severely frowned on by superior people, and one
played 78s of Stokowski's or Sir Henry Wood's Bach transcriptions very much
in private and for consenting adults only! Now, thanks to renewed enthusiasm
for transcriptions such as Schoenberg's version of the 'St Anne' Prelude
and Fugue, Elgar's orchestral Fantasia and Fugue and Stokowski's
transcriptions, possibly on the back of the re-release of the Disney film
Fantasia, many orchestral versions are being aired in this Bach
250th anniversary year, and good it is to have them. And what
a range of material there is to choose from. By the way, do revisit Chandos's
superb earlier BBC Philharmonic disc of 'Stokowski's Symphonic Bach' (CHAN
9259).
As always when forgotten repertoire is revived an enthusiast somewhere is
usually responsible for researching the literature and promoting the idea,
and this case we have to thank Edward Johnson, Stokowski enthusiast and
longstanding adviser to various conductors pioneering forgotten music, who
explored the repertoire and contributes the excellent and scholarly notes.
So thanks Ted, this is a brilliant idea reaching glorious fulfilment at the
hands of the BBC Philharmonic, Slatkin and Chandos.
This CD is slightly different from previous approaches to Bach transcriptions,
which have tended to concentrate on conductors' orchestrations; but here
the transcriptions are all by composers, whose personalities generally shine
through. Here we have nine views of Bach from composers in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, from Raff and Reger to Honegger and Schoenberg.
The old favourites by Elgar and Schoenberg are gloriously done, but the real
interest of Slatkin's programme is such things as the sumptuous orchestration
of BWV 582 by Respighi, Honegger's incisive approach to BWV 545 complete
with two saxophones, and one of the biggest, Raff's enormous orchestral version
of the celebrated Bach Chaconne, originally for solo violin but here
turned into a romantic orchestral movement of epic proportions. The Raff
is fascinating, a post-Schuman composer developing Bach's instrumental writing
into a quasi-symphonic orchestral canvas, and making one realise how
fundamentally the romantic orchestral repertoire of composers from Schumann
to Brahms was rooted in Bach. Forget the Chaconne and listen to Raff,
for it makes a glorious orchestral movement in its own right, and Raff is
not always above introducing his own supporting material when he feels the
need. The Raff and Honegger are both world premiere recordings.
The BBC Philharmonic and the Chandos sound give us sumptuous playing, gloriously
caught. Slatkin is ideal in this repertoire, emphasising the romantic rather
than the classical but he keeps the music moving. In introducing the notes
Leonard Slatkin sets the whole project in context: 'The transcribers were
trying to bring the master's works to a wider public . . . for several
generations Bach's music was heard first in various orchestral versions .
. . this disc will represent for some listeners a kind of authenticity of
first exposure . . .'.
The two most familiar tracks the Schoenberg and Elgar are as well done here
as anywhere, and it is just a pity that Elgar's own version of Fantasia
and Fugue should only have been recorded in acoustic days, when it needs
the Chandos sound. The two world premiere recordings - the Honegger and Raff
- are particularly worth having, and you would have to look hard to find
several of the others. The unexpectedly plain Bantock Wachet auf,
previously only available on Weldon's Columbia 78, or Holst's Fugue à
la Gigue at three minutes the perfect short encore for a Holst programme,
provide splendid foils to the more exotic fare around them. This is not one
of those programmes were one should warn against playing it consecutively
- these orchestrations make a riveting sequence. Another composer where one
might have expected orchestral excess is Reger's orchestration, but his string
orchestra version of the chorale prelude 'O man bewail thy grevious sin',
made in wartime and close to his own death, creates a gripping hushed intensity
and is the still heart of a generally noisy and often exuberant programme.
The CD runs just over 73 minutes - apparently a tenth orchestration, the
Bach/Saint-Saëns Sarabande was recorded but had to be omitted
owing to playing time consideration. As these were BBC Philharmonic/Chandos
joint sessions, the material is all destined to be broadcast, and enthusiasts
in the UK may like to look out for the Saint-Saëns when it is aired
on Friday 28 July around 11.30am.
Incidentally, Chandos used to have some of the best sleeve designs around,
a notable tradition established from the outset by their talented first art
director Janet Osborn in LP days, but they seem to have lost some of their
touch recently - this example certainly contributes nothing to an otherwise
wonderful package.
Reviewer
Lewis Foreman
performance
recording
