Déjà Review: this review was first published in November 2011 and the recording is still available.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Piano Transcriptions – Volume 10
Nadejda Vlaeva (piano)
rec. 2010, St Silas the Martyr, St Silas Place, London
Hyperion CDA67873 [77]
It’s salutary to realise that this is now the tenth volume in Hyperion’s ‘Piano Transcriptions’ series, one that is proving outstanding in every way. Whereas volume nine was devoted to transcriptions by a phalanx of British composers – Berners, Goossens, Howells, Fryer, Bax, Borwick, Bantock – this one concentrates on two Frenchmen. The majority of works are from the two sets of transcriptions published by Saint-Saëns, but there are also two big Bach-Vivaldi transcriptions by the great pianist Isidore Philipp.
Saint-Saëns’ transcriptions were published in 1862 and 1873 and were clearly helpful in propagating Bach’s works domestically and professionally in France. They are also stunningly impressive in their own right. For both sets he chose music from cantatas, and solo violin works. The earlier set opens with the Ouverture from Cantata No. 29 in which Nadejda Vlaeva displays a splendid sense of colour and rhythmic energy, applying bass accenting with apposite weight and voicing appealingly. The Adagio from Cantata No. 3 is full of expression and then pealing vehemence, Saint-Saëns exploiting the rapid oscillation between the two for its full effect. The richly plangent Andantino from Cantata No.8 is one of the disc’s highlights. The single movements from the First Violin Partita and the Second Violin Sonata are deftly played, and fully assured contrapuntally. As ever Saint-Saëns knows how to end a sequence and as with his fabulous Études, he ends the first set with a scintillating transcription of the Presto from Cantata No.35.
For the later set he took the Fugue from the Third Sonata for Violin, adding its Largo for good measure — and there’s plenty of panache and bravado here, and effulgence in the latter movement. The piece that ends this second set, the Choeur from Cantata No.30, is textually quite thick, and genuinely celebratory.
Isidore Philipp (1863-1958) was a friend of Saint-Saëns, and a most distinguished musician in his own right. In 1935 he recorded some of his friend’s cello music with Paul Bazelaire, a disc still available on Pearl. His rich, powerful transcriptions of the two Bach (after Vivaldi) concertos are resplendent, exciting, virtuosically inclined in their extrovert intensity, and their richly refined and rewarding slow movements. Their confidence, dramatic octave doublings, and swagger, make for blistering, and wholly marvellous listening.
As ever Hyperion’s booklet is first class in all respects and the recorded sound is perfectly judged.
Bulgarian pianist Nadejda Vlaeva proves a heroic interpreter of these works, driving through with panache, rounded tone, richly balanced chords, strikingly intimate gestures and intense, but never tone-forced, splendour.
Jonathan Woolf
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Contents
The Complete Transcriptions published in 1862 by Camille Saint-Saëns Ouverture from Cantata No.29 BWV29
Adagio from Cantata No.3 BWV3
Andantino from Cantata No. 8 BWV8
Bourée from Partita No.1 for solo violin BWV1002
Andante from Partita No.2 for solo violin BWV1003
Presto from Cantata No.35 BWV35
The Complete Transcriptions published in 1873 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Introduction et Air from Cantata No.15 BWV15 (correctly, Johann Ludwig Bach)
Fugue from Sonata No.3 for solo violin BWV1005
Largo from Sonata No.3 for solo violin BWV1005
Récitatif et air from Cantata No.30 BWV30
Gavotte from Partita No.3 for solo violin BWV1006
Air from Cantata No.36 BWV36 Chœur from Canata No.30 BWV30
Transcriptions by Isidore Philipp
Concerto in A minor (after Vivaldi) BWV593; transcription published in 1923
Concerto in D minor (after Vivaldi) BWV596
