Rethinking Bach - Goldberg Variations - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The effort behind this album by Jorge Jiménez goes beyond performance, he created first a violin arrangement of a keyboard piece that challenges many a player with all ten fingers and several dozen keys. Our favorite Aria with 30 variations is immediately recognizable, even if the result isn’t the most violinistic of music.

I had a hard time enjoying this album as a piece onto itself; but once you already know the version for harpsichord? This can clearly be appreciated in much the same way other arrangements can. For me I like a three instrument version over this solo one. Just because you can arrange a two-handed piece to a violin doesn’t mean the results are equivalent. They are not.

The choice of a baroque violin for me is in alignment with creating something that we might have heard during the baroque period. Which I’m not convinced we would—the style of played music here doesn’t seem entirely idiomatic for the violin. Consider this as violin music—how might we rate Bach’s effort? All the glorious invention with his ability to vary the theme in the bass is there, but I found some difficulty in thinking of this as someone would have written for the violin.

The period instrument used, on loan from Jump Start Jr. sounds thin and I’m not terribly confident that Jiménez is entirely comfortable with this instrument. Despite the way it was recorded, I think the instrument has some salient strengths, especially so in the upper register.

Rethinking Bach - Cello Suites - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I kept thinking of Rachel Podger with these two albums; she’s now recorded the cello suites on the baroque violin and has also played the Goldberg’s as a chamber work.

This interpretation takes a Romantic-era arrangement alongside a violin and bow aligned with its time as the sources. While perhaps best enjoyed on the cello, this arrangement for me was ultimately more successful.

The recorded sound in this album for me is also an improvement over the Goldberg disc. The instrument is presented better and the reverb for me sounds ideal.

Going from cello to violin works pretty well; in this case there’s a “period” approach to the sound, despite the use of a more “romantic” solution with instrument choice. It’s an enticing thought to think of reproducing Bach as he may have been heard in the salon of, say, Mendelssohn.

Conclusions

These albums together for me are a bit of a novelty. There’s no denying the technical gifts of Jiménez’s playing. With so much done in the area of re-arranging Bach (for historical reasons, say, to re-create a lost concerto, or for perhaps selfish reasons to play something written for the cello on your own four-stringed instrument?) Bach’s music works so well outside of its written intention.

In both albums here Mr. Jiménez has elected to re-introduce us to two well-known Bach collections on the violin. His work doesn’t convince me that Bach’s music is totally transferrable; specifically with his Goldberg Variations album I admire his technical skill but think the arrangement loses too much of what makes the work extraordinary. I’m surprised I like the “romantic cello” interpretation on violin better, but given the original material, maybe we should expect as much.

For both albums, I think there’s a place and a warm spot for violinists who want to get closer to these pieces. The existence at all of these album speaks to the universally profound nature of Bach’s music. Despite my criticism of the Goldberg album, I think both are worth an audition.