D!ssonanti Bach Transcriptions

• Performers: D!ssonanti: Sébastien Marq, recorders, Antoine Torunczyk (double reeds), Tami Troman (violin), Javier Zafra (bassoon), Simon Trounczyk (contrabass), Chiaopin Kuo (harpsichord) with Armelle Marq (voice)
• Label: INC/SES
• Recording: Église Notre Dame de la Merci à Trémel, August 2023
• Sound engineering: Franck Jaffrès / Unik Access

Once again we’re confronted with another Bach album of “arrangements,” here featuring strings and period winds. Some of these recordings are not conceptually interesting, but the artistic results can go either way. Some achieve greatness in the emotional impact of the playing, others are polite stand-ins for the originals. The faces on the cover of this album didn’t immediately tell me if this was an HIPP production or not. As it turns out, it is, which gives me no special pleasure, as I am bound to ask if Bach would have written these. He was an arranger, and probably for very pragmatic reasons. But I was impressed with the photography in the included booklet of these musicians—at least Sébastian Marq with whom I am familiar—at how close they are as humans, smiles beaming, a group that I can’t help but think enjoy making music together.

Most of the arrangements were constructed by Sébastien Marq, who I have followed as a gifted recorder specialist. Eleven tracks are provided, originating from Bach’s organ works, the Well-tempered clavier, and the famous Ciaccona from violin sonatas and partitas. Many Bach fans will recognize all the pieces. They are not, perhaps, the most perfect transcriptions, but are, I think, nobly constructed to fit the instrumentarium of the players assembled. Color and variety are offered in a way that I think are not Bachian in design. Yet, the results are undeniably affective. Good notes accompany the album (for me, via Qobuz) which is offered at high resolution (96 kHz).

The two major works on this album include BWV 1004.5 and the Passacaglia and Fugue, BWV 582. Both moved me deeply. The phrasing and ensemble’s sound for me was executed technically-sure and with careful humane sensitivity. Both are similar in that they unfold slowly to great heights of emotional potential. Their fullest? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll be the first to admit that I think the potential for Bach’s music outstrips the instruments and voices he had access to in his time on this earth. Yet, if you take this album for what I gather it was for the performers—a collegial celebration of favorite music—it reveals particular charm.

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, an arrangement of an organ work based upon the Chorale tune, is the one track arranged by Antoine Torunczyk. I really came to discover this work in an arrangement by Bruno Cocset’s ensemble. For me his arrangement bested the organ original (maybe, as the King’s Consort original recording of the six organ trio sonatas bested the originals for organ). This one doesn’t improve upon Cocset’s dark version with cello and organ continuo, but this version is nonetheless rich and enjoyable.

The Fantasia and Fugue in A minor BWV 904 for me opens a new sound world for this keyboard pairing. All three lead voices, violin, oboe, and recorder, are splendidly played. Perhaps the most memorable of the three is the playing by Antoine Torunczyk. His tone is delicious.

The pedal exercise, BWV 598 is the odd one out in this album, for solo bassoon in its arrangement. Say what you will about a short piece written only for the pedals, I think it comes alive in this guise under Zafra’s command.

Voice is used in several tracks. In the case of BWV 710, it helps us to hear the original melody, interwoven by Bach as the cantus firmus. Armelle Marq is the soprano singer, no doubt a relation to Sébastien—his daughter?

The artist I do not recall coming across before is the harpsichordist, Chiaopin Kuo. I found this story he wrote in the meeting of Huguette Dreyfus (page 30). What a story! It epitomizes again for me the flavor of this album, of musicians coming together to engage in something personal, as if they’re playing perhaps for their own pleasure.

And all of it has been captured in a small stone church that has recently been refurbished after an unfortunate fire. I can’t help but think you’ll detect the reverence for the musician’s love for Bach in this album, one that I hope was as pleasant to make as it was to enjoy this weekend.

Far from the implication of this ensemble’s revised name, the pleasure comes from their consonance, not dissonance.