Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Rafał Blechacz
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalogue: 4795534
Release: 2017
Size: 1.17 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Italian Concerto, BWV971
01. I. (Allegro)
02. II. Andante
03. III. Presto
Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV825
04. I. Prelude
05. II. Allemande
06. III. Courante
07. IV. Sarabande
08. V. Menuet I & II
09. VI. Gigue
Duets Nos. 1-4, BWV802-805
10. No. 1, Duetto in E Minor, BWV 802
11. No. 2, Duetto in F Major, BWV 803
12. No. 3, Duetto in G Major, BWV 804
13. No. 4, Duetto in A Minor, BWV 805
Fantasia & Fugue in A minor, BWV944
14. I. Fantasia
15. II. Fugue
Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV827
16. I. Fantasia
17. II. Allemande
18. III. Corrente
19. IV. Sarabande
20. V. Burlesca
21. VI. Scherzo
22. VII. Gigue
Cantata BWV147 ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’
23. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Arr. Myra Hess for Piano)
“Blechacz is a superlative pianist” BBC Music Magazine
Celebrated by his Chopin awarded recordings and cited by critics as one of those talents that only come along every few decades – has now turned to Bach. The now 31-year-old winner of the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, has been immersed in Bach since his childhood and has cultivated a strikingly natural eloquence in his mature interpretations of the composer’s keyboard works.
This is the perfect album to show his versatility and fine knowledge of the works of the composer.
Rafal’s interpretation flows not least from his formative experience as an organist. Young Rafał cut his musical teeth on Bach’s principal instrument, playing organ for several years before turning full time to piano. In addition to playing for services at the main church in his hometown of Nakło nad Notecią, he also gave occasional recitals there long after becoming a pianist.
Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz (pronunciation perilous for non-Poles, but try “BLEH-hotch”) made his name as a young Chopin specialist, but has often featured Bach’s Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971, in concert. The Bach-Chopin connection is one that would have made perfect sense to Chopin himself, and here Blechacz expands it to full program length, with impressive results indeed. He may remind you of Dinu Lipatti, another Eastern European Chopin player whose Bach was haunting: sample the gentle and yet awesomely clear first movement of the Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV 825. Blechacz’s Italian Concerto has great forward urgency without ever breaking tempo. The program has an intelligent structure of its own, placing the rather rare Four Duets, BWV 802-805 — essentially expanded two-part inventions — at the center: the music seems to enter a deeper chromatic realm and then slowly depart from it with another partita, and finally, with the arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Dame Myra Hess, another pianist whom Blechacz may bring to mind. If it seems wrong to bring up these big names, well, just give the album a listen. With this release Blechacz definitively transcends young phenom status. The metal-oriented Friedrich-Ebert-Halle arena in Ludwigshafen is a bit large and impersonal for what Blechacz is trying to do here, although everything’s clear.