Bach on Recorder

Maurice Steger and La Cetra Barockorchester Basel record works by J. S. Bach on Berlin Classics.

I auditioned this via Qobuz and had no booklet provided.

By Bach’s time the recorder was becoming eclipsed by the transverse flute. Bach calls for recorder in concertos and cantatas; the instrument had certainly been in use for some time. When it comes to Bach’s “works for flute” however, I think our understanding is that these were intended for the transverse flute. The difference in these instruments are in how the sound is produced (breaking the stream of air with a hard, engineered wedge, versus across a blowhole), and how the instruments are held against the body. Eventually the transverse instrument would supersede the recorder with more carrying power and the ability to operate more seamlessly across the chromatic scale with the instruments evolution beyond the baroque period.

Steger is one of today’s most virtuosic, historical recorder players and this album allows him to use his talents in both arrangements and in original scorings by Bach.

I’ve decided to discuss this album via a few of the included works.

Trio Sonata BWV 527

This is a favorite of mine; here Steger plays recorders with what I assume is a violin or viola on the secondary voice. In much of this arrangement of a trio sonata for organ, the recorder and continuo outweigh the sound of the second voice (violin). Steger’s virtuosity steals the show and does so, perhaps, at the detriment of having two equal voices in theory in a trio texture.

Concerto BWV 1053

This concerto left to us for harpsichord and strings is often arranged for oboe as the lead instrument; the solo part allows for a variety of articulations and Steger doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Here he assures us the recorder is a more agile instrument than the oboe.

The tempo taken with the third movement is so brisk that getting clear articulation from the orchestra is a challenge; when Steger joins, the artistic direction is clear, but again, a sense of balance seems off with an entire “orchestra” versus a single recorder, an admittedly soft instrument. I think the balance in the recording makes the recorder quite clear and upfront, but I’d have preferred to have heard a more honest balance with what I assume is a 1 per part chamber ensemble.

Ricercar à 6 BWV 1079

This is not the most idiomatic piece for recorder and orchestra, as it’s an arrangement for a six-part fugue for keyboard. The approach here is to give each part to an individual instrument (oboe da caccia, I presume; violin, bassoon, and of course recorder joins the menagerie. The bass line for me is too heavy, as awesome as the sound is. The effect is perhaps better than what Webern gave us in his own orchestral arrangement. I give props to the orchestral members who don’t read their lines in a stale fashion, but rather play quite expressively, given baroque performance limitations.

Sonata in E, BWV 1035

This is one of Bach’s “true” flute works; here it’s realized on recorder and bassoc continuo (bowed and harpsichord). The harpsichord sound is a little strange to my ears, which I think has to do with the registration used at parts, but also with its distance from the microphones. Both the left hand and bowed instrument are in good sync. The recorder in this work is also odd sounding to me, with the way the microphones have captured it. Despite both technical and expressive strength throughout, the naturalness of the recorded sound is off. It’s a different sound world when we change to a fuller ensemble work such as the final concerto.

Concerto in F, BWV 1057

This is Bach’s own arrangement of the fourth Brandenburg Concerto. In this case, the violin part is replaced with the harpsichord; the two “flauti d’echo” are replaced for recorders, which of course, we have interpreted as Bach’s intention with the fourth Brandenburg.

In this recording the harpsichord is artificially forward in the mix. Playing is technically tight and detailed. The virtuosity is further developed in the final movement, with things going fuller tilt. To my ears, I detect a harpsichord utilizing a 16’ stop. There are a few places where Steger sounds like he may be ahead of the rest of the group, but this tick of sorts isn’t only sounded by Steger; there are examples where the harpsichord part detaches from the main tempo a bit in spots, which I am guessing is part of the ensemble’s expressive nature and not a temporal fault.

Final Thoughts

Steger’s playing is always satisfying; in the past decade, he’s become known for virtuosity. Doing a Bach album seems like a natural thing to do, and this concert attempts to marry a variety of Bach’s familiar works with an unfamiliar sound in many of them, that of the recorder. One piece included that I did not discuss is BWV 1020, which may be a collaboration with his son, C.P.E. Bach.

While Bach may not have originally intended a recorder, I don’t think there is a lot to discount in the way arrangements were made in these works. Both Steger and his colleagues push the tempos in spots to raise our eyebrows in acknowledgement of the virtuosity at play.

I found the recorded sound in many of the works to be artificial and the sound mastering geared toward giving preference to the solo instruments. It’s my only real criticism of the album, and readers may benefit from playing back the recording on speakers rather than headphones to lessen this artificial presentation.

For me the two stand-out pieces are the Ricercar from the Musical Offering and the E major concerto, which is more satisfying than most of the oboe renditions I’ve remembered. I however think this album is best suited for those who like Steger and want his interpretations of these oft-recorded pieces for their collections.