Markevitch was not
the first, and will not be the last,
to attempt a realisation for performance
of the Musical Offering. His solution
involves reordering the canons, interpolating
one within the Sonata and fusing the
nine remaining canons in sequence, here
called Theme with Variations with one
doubled. The effect is one of development
and movement and what one may perhaps
call symphonic arch, with all the sense
of cumulative tension that that implies.
Markevitch has constructed a four-movement
work; Ricercare a 3 voci, The Theme
with Variations, the Sonata and the
concluding Fugue a 6 – Markevitch’s
own nomenclature though more properly
known as the Ricercare a 6. As conductor
Christopher Lyndon-Gee points out in
his authoritative notes Markevitch also
employs three orchestral groupings and
plots them stereophonically on stage
- the Disposition des Instruments,
his orchestral plan, is printed
at the end of the booklet. Looking at
it from the audience’s visual perspective
one can see that in the middle is the
Sonata group – harpsichord, solo strings,
oboe and the others – and to the left
and right of the conductor are Orchestras
1 and 2, comprised entirely of strings.
Orchestra 3 includes winds and continuo,
amongst others.
Markevitch was inspired
to this realisation by his teacher Nadia
Boulanger – and she completed the keyboard
continuo part. It was first performed
in 1950 and Markevitch went on to record
it six years later, even going so far
as to programme it in his New York debut.
His achievement is one of architectural
logic and cohesion fused with aural
clarity. Textures are refined, the orchestral
layout becoming a source of fruitful
conjunctions and interplay. It’s noticeable
how the oboe’s entry in the Quaerendo
invenietis (which Lyndon-Gee
rightly calls "shocking")
achieves this impact through just these
means. The schema is assured and logical
and the resolution is noble in its cumulative
power and there is perhaps one more
element in its success. Bach’s may or
may not have ever been intended as a
performable work in toto but in his
realisation Markevitch gives formal
lucidity to the work and plays on the
contrast between the intimacy of the
continuo and Sonata group and the grandeur
of the full ensemble that surrounds
it – both physically and metaphorically.
To this end the notes are exemplary
in examining Markevitch’s motives and
musical means of expression and the
orchestra does indeed rise to noble
heights in their elucidation of the
text.
Jonathan Woolf
Rémy Baudet (violin), Hans van Loenen
(wooden transverse flute), Jeroen Reuling (cello),
Dirk Luijmes (harpsichord) 