Bach Reimagines Bach
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Linn
Magazine Review Date: 05/2017
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CKD445
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(3) Sonatas and 3 Partitas, Movement: Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV1001 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer William Carter, Lute |
Suite |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer William Carter, Lute |
Author: William Yeoman
Indeed they do. Guitarist and lutenist extraordinaire, continuo player to the stars Bill Carter, who in typically cheerful mood ends his entertaining and informative booklet-note with the above, has finally ventured forth into the miniature universe that is JS Bach’s music for solo lute (after Bach’s own works for solo violin or cello), following years exploring more far-flung regions such as the Baroque guitar music of Francesco Corbetta and Santiago de Murcia. It has been worth the wait.
Carter was a student of Nigel North, whose complete recordings of Bach’s solo violin and cello music transcribed for lute is one of the jewels in Linn Records’ crown. He brings his former teacher’s devotion to seeing Bach’s music as a language in which one must strive to be fluent with an ear for the colouristic possibilities of the lute born of years performing with orchestras and chamber ensembles.
Thus there is the soloist’s suppleness and flexibility of phrase; but there is also the obvious enjoyment of pure sonority and tints and shades of tone. These qualities are most evident in the freer preludes of the G minor Sonata and Suite; but there is a lovely use of notes inégales in the Siciliana and the Courante of both suites as well, while other dance movements benefit from Carter’s deceptively subtle, distinctive imagination.
Tempos are, when compared with a player such as Hopkinson Smith’s in the same works, somewhat on the leisurely side. That’s because Carter isn’t in a hurry to get anywhere. He arrived a long time ago.
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