Concerto Italiano - More Bach, Please!
I foresee a time in my own lifetime that we’ll have an AI that can compose in the style of Bach to a degree that many will find delight. In the meantime, the folks over at Concerto Italiano might satisfy our itch for “more Bach” with this album, featuring three works that will be altogether familiar, but of course, different.
The approach in this project was to create three works based upon pre-existing Bach material. In the first overture-suite we have the most direct route, re-arranging the keyboard piece known as the Overture in the French Manner BWV 831 into a Bachian orchestral suite, complete with oboes and bassoons. The work mimics for me the ensemble’s former work at presenting the Italian Concerto as a violin concerto. (To this day, that performance remains strong in my mind as a true delight!)
The effect for me is a convincing one, at least in most cases. Bach’s own writing for keyboard is strong enough to mimic the effect of an orchestral work. Concerto Italiano, in its current formulation, sounds full and rich, giving the arrangement some authenticity with its timbre, including winds. Where I thought there was room for improvement was around the voicing and where they might have differentiated between a full ensemble and soloists. There are examples in almost every dance where this might have been applied, even if not specifically clear from the original source material.
In the first Passepied we do get a reduction of forces, lending the lead to the oboes and bassoon. The articulation I thought might have been tidied with a less all-legato approach. But the offering here of the winds by themselves could have been further exploited. A great example is the opening Bourée. Why not alternate with violins? When the winds are exposed for a measure or two, I found this solution unusual, given Bach’s own writing in his four surviving orchestral suites, if not also including the spurious one, BWV 1070. Concerto Italiano responds to my heart by presenting the second Bourée for solo violin. I can’t help but think, however, that the solution would have been to follow a solo episode with a statement by all the violins.
In the Echo movement Concerto Italiano puts all their creative arranging on display, playing with texture and timbre with solo snapshots for the first violin alongside the winds again. I am not sure the solution is totally Bachian in caliber, but I nevertheless enjoyed the solutions wrought.
The next piece is called a Partita for traverso and strings, and combines disparate source material, starting with a movement from Bach’s sonata for violin and keyboard, BWV 1016. The piece works perfectly well on flute.
The next movement comes from Bach’s fourth keyboard partita, BWV 828. Thus far, listening, I’m not convinced of the orchestral support, thinking that both of these first two movements might have been originally presented, if Bach so-arranged them, simply for flute and continuo. A pair of menuets follow, the first most believable, having been lifted from the fourth orchestral suite, BWV 1069. The second dance, stolen from the first keyboard partita, BWV 825, is right at home next to the first menuet.
The final two movements are taken from Bach’s French Suites. Overall the arrangements are delightful, but don’t seem to be fully wrought in the style that Bach would have used a vis to his second orchestral suite that features flute. What does work, I think, is the selections made in terms of material. Despite coming form disparate source works, the combination all clearly comes together using the same musical language.
The final G major suite, like the former piece, is put together using disparate works by Bach across eight movements, starting with an Overture from the F-major BWV 820 of which I am not intimately familiar. The faster section sets the string ensemble on its way with a contrapuntal jigsaw.
Among the most successful of the movements in this suite, I think, is the quotation of the Gavotte from the French Suite no. 5, BWV 816. I’d almost have liked to heard the more famous gigue, afterward, but it’s followed with an inferior piece, from the aforementioned overture-suite for keyboard, BWV 820. The ending is abrupt and uncanny. I can’t decide why they chose to use this piece or end their new construction this way. (Clearly, I need to seek out BWV 820 and try it out in its original clothing.)
I want to say that I really admire Concerto Italiano and their many years of putting out compelling recordings, including those featuring the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Of special note I would cite their more recent recording of Vivaldi/Bach concertos from L'estro armonico and 2019 Bach overtures recording, not to mention the Goldberg variations CD from 2017. But when it comes to Bach, the orchestrations, as what's on display, should matter.
We’d expect no less of J.S. Bach in arrnaging is own material, as he was known to do.
These works, as presented, aren’t specifically Bach works; they are instead arrangements for baroque chamber orchestra that attempt to recast together some well-known and less well-known authentic Bachian dances in a collection for our enjoyment.
In that guise, the recording is more successful. The playing, all around, is well done, save for few comments I had around articulation, which is more about how the arrangements were made, not as much about what the performers were doing with the scores put before them.
We can’t help but indulge musicians who try and recycle what little we were left by Bach’s pen into new creations. My recent review of the Richter re-arrangement of Vivaldi is a testament to the same type of desire. With a lighthearted approach, these new works will remind us of the artistry behind Bach’s invention of themes. They translate well to orchestral forces, including those that feature the flute.
But I must also admit these aren’t, in fact, reconstructions of actual Bachian works. Attempts at presenting his concertos (those surviving for harpsichord, for other solo instruments) in new light have been more successful. As stated, the opening re-creation of the B minor work carries the most authenticity.
I think for most fans of Bach, this album is a fresh take on hearing some of Bach’s music with new clarity and insight. I ultimately, however, think that there is room for improvement in Alessandrini’s arrangements. By no means are they bad, but for reasons stated and impossibly stated in words, they feel in some cases too straightforward.
The idea is one that won’t stop in this attempt and despite my reservations here, I hope there continues to be efforts to re-cast Bach's existing material into something new—including the further refinement of AI tools to bring us “more Bach!”
