Bach : Musique pour guitare

Description

An unpublished collection of landmark pieces from Bach’s vast instrumental corpus, transcribed by Luigi Attademo himself. Bach left us a few isolated pieces and suites for lute, the ancestor of the guitar, but guitarists have always found the rest of his music as easy to adapt as that of any other musician. Luigi Attademo recorded the complete lute music of Bach ten years ago on a double CD from Brilliant Classics (94294), which drew rave reviews in the international press for the rigor and imagination of his playing. On this new recording, he takes on pieces originally conceived for cello (the Prelude from the First Cello Suite), violin (the Chaconne from the Partita in D minor), harpsichord (the Aria from the Goldberg Variations), and flute (the Siciliano from the Sonata in E-flat major), which have acquired iconic status over the three centuries since their composition, for their apparent simplicity and expressive depth. The recital offers several stimulating pairings: the Aria from the Goldberg Variations with the Air from the Third Orchestral Suite; Gavottes from the Sixth Cello Suite and the Violin Partita in E major; the Siciliano from the Sonata for solo violin in G minor, preceding the famous example for flute. These pairs highlight the variety of Bach’s responses to a particular genre. The most grandiose and seemingly complex of the works presented here, the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, proves particularly expressive on the guitar, bringing the virtuosic and extroverted writing closer to what is now thought to be a lost original score for violin (perhaps not even by Bach), rather than the now universally known organ version. Attademo provides a personal introduction to the album, explaining his choice of repertoire and his interpretive approach, drawing inspiration from great Bach performers of the past, such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Dinu Lipatti.