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Bach guitar transcriptions by Enno Voorhurst

M. Levitt - classical music buff | Philadelphia, PA | 09/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johann Sebastian Bach's music in transcription has been a core part of the classical guitar repertoire for at least the last 45 to 55 years, thanks to the efforts of Andres Segovia, who singlehandedly rescued the guitar from oblivion to an internationally accepted and respected place throughout the world, and the world's great concert halls.



Segovia's way of performing Bach is today still magical and revered, but his approach to transcribing Bach's music for the classical guitar has been rejected.



In the last ten or fifteen years, numerous fine classical guitarists have moved toward transcribing entire compositions by Bach, instead of Segovia's earlier approach of transcribing only single movements from, say, from a Bach Cello Suite or Partita for Unaccompanied Violin.



This newer practice means that we not only hear more of Bach's music as he wrote it, but we hear guitarists (and lutenists) perform this music with historically based embellishments in the music, not necessarily written in the music, but understood as part of standard performance practice.



This means exposure to the complete Bach Lute Suites, selected Sonatas and Partitas from Bach's compositions for Unaccompanied Violin, some of the Bach Cello Suites, and increasing forays into music like the Bach Concertos for solo keyboard after Vivaldi and others.



Enno Voorhurst, an apparently young guitarist recorded by Naxos, takes this at least a few steps further.



He transcribes the Bach Partita for Solo flute, BWV 1013; a Bach Prelude from the Well Tempered Clavier, BWV 854, for keyboard; and the Harpsichord Concerto after Marcello, BWV 974, in addition to the Bach Sonata No.1,BWV 1001, for Unaccompanied Violin, which has been recorded and/ or performed by a number of classical guitarists, and at least two lutenists, Eduardo Eguez and Nigel North.



Voorhurst also performs the more questionable Prelude in C, BWV 939, and Adagiosissimo, BWV 992.



The Bach Partita for Solo Flute is less often performed and recorded than the Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord. Indeed, one has to search for recordings of this piece, which only takes about 17 or 18 minutes to play.



It opens Voorhurst's CD of Bach Guitar Transcriptions, and is beautifully played, so well, in fact, that I felt bad I had no version on the flute to use for comparison.



Voorhurst's playing is very crisp, beautifully paced and balanced - fast versus slow movements - and a pleasure to listen to. I honestly think I got at least as much, if not more, pleasure from hearing this fine music on the guitar, possibly in its first recorded version, than I did from Voorhurst's playing itself.



Voorhurst comes off not only as a fine exponent of the classical guitar, but a first rate transcriber of Bach's music, and we can never have enough of either kind of musician.



His transcription of the Bach Prelude in E Major, BVW 854 is a bit of a disappointment. I don't know if this piece doesn't work well in transcription, or Voorhurst's need to keep the textures clean compels him to play this music somewhat slowly, but I am very much used to hearing this music performed in a much more flowing style by almost all of the pianists whose recorded or live performances I have heard.



The Bach Solo Harpsichord Concerto after Marcello, BWV 974 is absolutely exquisite.



This is a transcription of a transcription of the original music, which is Marcello's most famous composition, his Oboe Concerto in D Minor for Oboe and Strings.



Bach captured Marcello's music wonderfully, recasting it for solo keyboard, and Voorhurst plays this music with real flair, an instinctive feel for this music, and a sense of revelry and beautiful phrasing and balance between movements that is a delight. Arguably the highlight of the CD.



For the Bach Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1001, the finale of Voorhurst's CD of Bach Guitar Transcriptions, I compared Voorhurst to Manuel Barrueco's acclaimed transcription of all three Bach Sonatas for Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1001, 1003 and 1005; and Eduardo Eguez's recordng of BWV 1001 on the lute, taken from Eguez' The Lute Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Volume 2, which I have reviewed separately on Amazon.com.



Listening to Barrueco versus Voorhurst is like listening to seasoned master verus exciting young master.



Voorhurst's performance of this Bach unaccompanied Sonata is not just excellent: It is exuberant, wonderfully played, and strikes this listener at least as a young artist discovering this music for perhaps the first time, and reveling both in the music itself, and his ability to perform it as well as he does.



Barrueco sounds like an older, seasoned master unexcited by the music, who invests it with the richness and wisdom of his experience, yet does not yield any ground to Voorhurst in terms of flawless, unlimited technique, beautifully, sort of autumnly, performed in totally silent digital sound. (Both guitarists benefit greatly from fine digital sound.)



Eguez comes in third I think in this music.



Is it because of the recording, which, although using the latest recording techniques, does not have the depth or ambience of the Barrueco (in particular) or Voorhurst recordings?



Or is it that Eguez plays a Baroque lute with its different sound?



I do not know.



What I do know is that I would not want to be without any of these recordings, as fine as they are. Nor would I want to choose between Eduardo Eguez on the lute, and, say, Nigel North (also on the lute), whose recording of the Sonata, BWV 1001, was not available to me.



The questionable pieces on Voorhurst's CD of Bach Guitar Transcriptions are the Prelude in C, BWV 939; and the Adagiosissimo, BWV 992.



Another reviewer of this CD warns "Buyer beware," writing about the Prelude, BWV 939.



I have no previous knowledge or experience with this music. It completely baffles me, and I wish that Voorhurst had recorded something else (please see my comments on the Adagiosissimo, BWV 992 below).



The Adagiosissimo, BWV 992 is only the first part of Bach's famous Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother.



It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that this Adagiosissimo was used by the producers at Naxos to fill space on the CD, and/ or that the full piece would have taken more lines in the listing of the music Voorhurst plays than they had space for, all of which is regrettable to put it mildly.



The total playing time for the CD is only 53:36, so they had lots of room to record the entire Capriccio, and they should have done exactly that, or left the whole piece off, if there were problems either transcribing the music, or performing it, which I doubt (especially Voorhurst's ability to perform well whatever he wants).



Another option was to free space by eliminating the suspicious Prelude in C, BWV 939.



The producers and Voorhurst did none of these things, so that we are left with mostly a very fine CD of Bach Guitar Transcriptions by a superb young classical guitarist, one piece that never should have seen the light of day - the Prelude in C Major, BWV 939 - and one grievous error: not recording the entire Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, or leaving the part, the Adagiosissimo, BWV 992, which is on the CD, off the CD.



After making such an effort to record new, full transcriptions of other music never heard before on the classical guitar by Bach, it is absolutely bewildering that they did not see this gross inconsistency.



A fine introduction to Bach, Bach transcriptions on the guitar, and to guitarist Enno Voorhurst.



Recommended.



"

Well done, but misleading

Samuel W. Ecoff | Hartland, WI United States | 06/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a collection of well-performed transcriptions, but for those who are specifically looking for a transcription of BWV 939, this is not it. I purchased this CD just for that piece, so imagine my dismay to discover that the prelude on track 6 isn't really BWV 939 (a prelude from the Notebook for William Friedman Bach). I cannot speak to the accuracy of the other tracks on the disc, nor am I able to identify what the sixth track actually is. Buyer beware..."

Research

yes2maybe | 12/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Bach prelude BWV 939 is actually the Bach prelude BWV 936. A simple misprint on the part of Naxos."