Bach: Suites & Partitas

The title Bach Suites & Partitas makes it very hard for the buyer to identify what's really included in this rather specialized release, namely a group of Bach transcriptions of two different kinds, performed on the harpsichord by French Canadian monk Dom André Laberge. First is the Suite in C minor, BWV 997, probably intended for the lute, followed by the Suite in E minor, BWV 996. The latter work was designated on a contemporary copy as a piece for Lautenwerk, a sort of keyboard-lute hybrid about whose exact construction ... Read More

The title Bach Suites & Partitas makes it very hard for the buyer to identify what's really included in this rather specialized release, namely a group of Bach transcriptions of two different kinds, performed on the harpsichord by French Canadian monk Dom André Laberge. First is the Suite in C minor, BWV 997, probably intended for the lute, followed by the Suite in E minor, BWV 996. The latter work was designated on a contemporary copy as a piece for Lautenwerk, a sort of keyboard-lute hybrid about whose exact construction considerable disagreement remains; no period examples have survived. Neither of these is much of a stretch for the harpsichord; the BWV 997 suite may indeed have been written for it, and similar arrangements of lute pieces were made by Bach's contemporaries. The music gets commanding, energetic treatment from Laberge, and even in the Sonata in D minor, BWV 964, the mood is not broken; this transcription of the Sonata No. 2 for solo violin, BWV 1003, came down from Bach's orbit and... Read Less