What is it about Bach's music that makes it almost failure-proof in the hands of a skilful transcriber? Bach himself was always transcribing his own work, and others have been busy at the task ever since. The non-vocal works, especially, have been rescored again and again for every imaginable instrument or ensemble. We have the Goldberg Variations for harp, accordion, string trio; organ works for full orchestra; cello suites for solo lute; the Brandenburg Concertos for synthesiser, and those are only a few examples from an endless list. But somehow it almost always works, and often even points up beauties that are not as prominent in the original versions. For some reason this doesn't seem to be true of the music of any other composer.
J.S. BACH: Sonatas And Partitas For Solo Violin
Transcribed for mandolin, Vol 1. Sonata No. 1 In G Minor , BWV 1001; Partita No. 1 In B Minor , BWV 1002; Sonata No. 2 in A minor , BWV 1003. Chris Thile, mandolin. Nonesuch, CD or download.
Listeners who know the violin sonatas and partitas in their original form may have doubts about what might be expected from the mandolin versions on this new disc. Sometimes one kind of instrumental garb fits better than another and, as a concept, the performance of Bach's Sonatas And Partitas For Solo Violin on a mandolin doesn't sound promising. How can a mandolin, with its sharp, quickly dying little points of sound, give them the voice they need?
I don't know Chris Thile's Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers work, but listeners who do write about him reverentially. This Bach disc was my introduction to his playing, but it only took a few minutes listening to his version of the G Minor Sonata's opening Adagio to recognise him as a master of his instrument who has rethought these works with great creativity for the mandolin.
In his note to this release, the pianist/blogger Jeremy Denk (author of Think Denk), speaking of Thile's transcriptions of the slow movements, writes that "the long, lyrical lines take on new qualities, new meanings; it seems to me that there is a stillness and a simplicity to the mandolin that a sustaining violin cannot replicate, so that Bach suddenly feels closer to the Renaissance". But it is also true that it is in these movements that some listeners will miss the violin the most. The deep plangency of the Sarabande in the B Minor Partita, for example, is largely gone here, and in its place comes the feeling of stillness that Denk mentions, with a more meditative mood.
It works beautifully in its own terms, though, and Thile's performance gives it a depth of expression that many people might think would be out of range for the mandolin. For me, however, and maybe for some other listeners, the original, violin version stays in the mind and haunts the performance, as it does the opening Grave movement of the A Minor Sonata, where the sustained notes of the violin allow the music to sing its heart out.
But it is also true that the nimbleness of the mandolin makes it possible to navigate some passages in fast movements more quickly than a violin can, and often to make contrapuntal passages clearer. Thile takes fast tempi throughout these performances, perhaps as a way of compensating for the almost instantaneous fading of each note. His wizardly technique allows him to play at top speed with great accuracy while terracing dynamics to allow the dialogues and exchanges built into the music to be heard. Listen to the Presto finale of the G Minor Sonata, for example, and marvel. The Double: Presto fourth movement of the B Minor Partita is played at a lightning speed, but the phrases are perfectly contoured. Even the partita's Tempo di Borea movement, a signature piece for the violin, sounds wonderful here.
The fugal second movement of the G Minor Sonata already exists in a lute transcription by Bach as BWV 1000, and John Williams' guitar performance of it is one of my favourite Bach recordings. Amazingly, Thile realises it just as effectively on the mandolin, making each voice sing expressively. Some listeners, and I am one of them, may prefer both of these transcriptions to the violin original. The same can be said of the second movement Fuga of the A Minor Sonata.
Listening to this disc for the first time, I had to make an adjustment similar to the one listeners may face when listening to John Kirkpatrick's recordings of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier played on the clavichord. With those recordings, at first the tone sounds thin and shallow compared to that of the harpsichord, not to mention the piano, but with repeated listening not only the timbre but the subtle dynamic range of the clavichord seem to fit the music exactly. Here it is hard at first to suppress expectations based on familiarity with the violin originals, but before long these sonatas and partitas become mandolin pieces, gorgeously played by Thile.
This release is probably the first of a series of three discs in which Thile will perform all of the sonatas and partitas in his mandolin transcriptions. What will he do with the Ciaconna finale of the D Minor Partita, one of Bach's very greatest, or with the famous Gavotte of the E Major Partita? Let's hope we won't have to wait too long to find out. My copy was a download from iTunes.
