JS Bach
Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV 827; French Suites: No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813; No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814; No. 5 in G, BWV 816
Christian Zacharias (piano)
MDG 90322806 (CD/SACD) 60:48 mins
Composed in the early 1720s when Bach was writing mostly instrumental music, these four keyboard suites are outwardly conventional, but replete with a complex range of mood and manner. Pianist Christian Zacharias is clearly alive to their wealth of nuance and technical intricacy.
The A minor Partita provides the greatest challenges in figuration and ornamentation. Zacharias’s way with the work is unfussy: he neither attempts to emulate the harpsichord, though he uses judicious punctuation with some carefully-placed spread chords; nor does he allow modern piano sonority to take over. His considered approach is evident in the care with which he phrases the bass of the A minor Partita’s opening ‘Fantasia’ and his strong feeling for its major structural points. The succeeding ‘Allemande’ is pleasingly whimsical as are the lighter movements, and his reading of the ‘Sarabande’ is a triumph with a sustained inner glow that draws the listener in.
The slighter , written for Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, are given concentrated, rounded performances. The C minor Suite’s gently soulful ‘Allemande’ is shaped beautifully, and the lighter dances have an appropriate feeling of elegant insouciance; unfortunately the concluding ‘Gigue’ is a little too clipped.
