"This man [J. S
.Bach] would be the admiration of whole
nations if he was more pleasant and
if he did not allow a bombastic and
complicated style to stifle any naturalness
in his pieces, or obscure their beauty
through excessive artifice."
Thus begins the booklet
accompanying Brilliant Classics' two-CD
issue of Bach's Orchestral Suites,
quoting from composer J.A.Scheibe's
1737 verdict about his contemporary.
Perhaps Scheibe did not enjoy the benefit
of hearing Bach's music played by an
ensemble as technically adept as La
Stravaganza Köln. Regardless of
his condemnation, though, there is no
obstruction to the transparent beauty
of Bach's music on this pair of CDs,
and no indication of obfuscation through
musical artifice.
On the contrary, the
performances on this recording are commendably
clear, musical and well balanced. Though
the recording is over a decade old (it
was previously released by Denon), it's
as clear as glass; despite the performances
being on period instruments, the sound
is smooth and flawless, with no hint
of rough edges or of suspect tuning
or intonation.
In recordings produced
in recent years, it has become common
practice for many ensembles to strive
for authenticity in their performances
through use of inégalité,
over-dotting, ornamentation, an academic
approach to phrasing and other tips
of the hat to supposed performance practice
of the early 18th century. Each listener
is likely to have his or her existing
opinions about the merits of authentic
performance practice, and supporters
of the more academic approach will not
have their enthusiasm set alight by
this particular recording. Listeners
who consider that the modern approach
to creating period performances produces
an overly eccentric and affected result,
however, will take great delight in
the transparent musicality of the performances
recorded here.
In fact, the CD booklet,
whose notes were written by director
and leader Andrew Manze, goes out of
its way to explain that La Stravaganza
has taken a very deliberate decision
to avoid the more pedantic and fashionable
modern approach, in favour of a more
naturalistic softening of rhythms and
application of rubato rather than inégalité.
Whilst this may not please the authentic-performance
buffs, anyone without much interest
in the authenticity debate will find
a rendition which is clear, precise
and thoroughly musical. La Stravaganza's
claimed use of rubato and naturalistic
rhythms may sound like an excuse for
a sloppy performance, but nothing could
be further from the truth. In reality,
this is a tremendously well articulated
recording from all points of view.
As already stated,
the sound quality is excellent, as is
the instrumental balance. All parts
can be heard with complete clarity regardless
of the number of instruments playing
at any given time, and when a particular
part needs to be prominent for a particular
passage, it's invariably allowed to
come forward without detracting from
the clarity of the other players. As
for the performances themselves, they
are unaffected and musical yet precise.
All articulation is carefully observed
and very clear, and ensemble is generally
perfect. Tempi are a little on the fast
side, but many of the movements in the
Orchestral Suites are dances, after
all, and these performances exude life.
One interesting peculiarity,
which is likely to offend the purists,
is the instrumentation of Orchestral
Suite No. 4. Normally performed with
a similar scoring to that of Suite No.
3, including trumpets and timpani, in
this recording those parts have been
dropped. The idea behind this decision
is that the surviving version of the
suite may have been an arrangement made
in Leipzig of an original written during
Bach's time in Cöthen; a supposition
which may or may not be valid; none
of the original scores of Bach's Orchestral
Suites survives, and they have all been
reconstructed from instrumental parts.
If this supposition is correct, then
there could not have been any trumpet
or timpani parts in the original version.
Without them, the character of the suite
is certainly modified considerably,
and the antiphonal effect of different
groups of instruments is also more readily
apparent. It seems questionable whether
Bach, in rearranging his suite for performance
in Leipzig, would have decided to change
its character fundamentally by the addition
of rambunctious new trumpet and timpani
lines, so the supposition that these
parts were an afterthought can be no
more than an intriguing idea. Without
them, the Suite certainly has a very
different nature. The fact that it still
works, musically, without those parts
may indicate either that Andrew Manze's
supposition has some credence, or that
Bach's music is so robust as to be virtually
impervious to damage, regardless of
the indignities to which it is subjected!
The latter point has been proved innumerable
times through far more serious mistreatment
of Bach's work than that administered
by La Stravaganza! Whatever you think
of the decision, the recording presents
an intriguing new take on a familiar
suite.
Overall, therefore,
this is an outstanding recording with
very few shortcomings, and an interestingly
different account of the fourth Orchestral
Suite. There are a few superficial blemishes,
though. Notwithstanding the points about
generally precise rhythms, the fast
bassoon passages in the first movement
of the first Orchestral Suite, although
played accurately, almost fall over
themselves in their eagerness, and sound
to be rushing the tempo against the
other players. Later, in the BWV146
Sinfonia, some of the rhythms in the
organ part sound not so much rubato
as recalcitrant. As for balance, the
sweet-sounding but light chamber organ
in the BWV29 Sinfonia is almost swamped
by other the instruments at times, and
the flute in the famous Badinerie that
ends Orchestral Suite No. 2 is a fraction
less prominent than might be ideal.
These are extremely minor complaints,
however, and the performances are excellent.
This recording may not satisfy the authenticity
brigade, but it's an extremely musically
pleasing and lithe performance of some
of Bach's best-known and most accessible
works.
The CDs come in an
old-style thick double-jewel-case. This
looks attractive enough, but a modern
single-width two-disc case would have
been preferable. It's not as if the
extra space was needed for a large booklet.
Andrew Manze's notes about the music
and his approach to its performance
run to only eight pages and are in English
only.
Richard Hallas
Andrew Manze, Pieter v. Dommele, Laura Johnson,
Paul Lindenauer, Regine Schröder-Hengelbrock,
Veronika Schepping, Mimi Mitchell, Mechthild
Werner, Gabriele Nussberger (violin) 
