Bach: Transcriptions

• Main performer: Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Booklet languages: English, German, French
• Time: 67:35
• Release Date: 2000

Review

"Cranked-up," "Rock 'n' Roll," "thick shag of strings": these are just a few of the unlikely descriptions used by the writer of the liner notes for his release in a useless attempt to justify the ways of transcription to man. But no justification is possible or even necessary. To the purist, a transcription is an abomination in the ears of God and man, and any transcription is a mortal sin against the art of Bach. But that hardly matters since this disc is clearly not for purists; it's for music lovers who want to rock with Bach. And this disc does rock, loud and hard. After some fairly snoozy years under the aging André Previn, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under music director Esa-Pekka Salonen has become one of the great virtuoso orchestras in the country, fully capable of playing Mahler, Stravinsky, Messiaen or even Bach transcriptions with fire and precision.

As you might expect, the disc starts with the most (in)famous Bach transcription of all time: the Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Apparently, to Stokowski, Bach was a chubby German burgher with a penchant for flashy clothes and cheap jewelry: his transcription of the Toccata is overdressed, fat, and slow. Salonen gives the devil his due and grants Stokowski all the ponderous weight the LAPO can summon. He even goes so far as to slow down at the stretto just before the climax of the fugue. One imagines that Stokowski would have loved it. Amazingly enough, the rest of the disc isn't anticlimatic. The Elgar C minor Fantasy and Fugue is a moving example of Elgarian Nobilmente at its best. The Schoenberg "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue is boisterous good fun. And the Mahler Suite is an infectious confection.

On its own terms, this disc is highly recommended. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Leopold Stokowski	Toccata and Fugue in D minor, transcription for orchestra (after Bach, BWV 565)	10:07
Edward Elgar	Arrangement: J.S. Bach's Fantasia & Fugue in C minor (BWV 537), for orchestra, Op. 86	9:09
Anton Webern	Fuga (Ricercata) a 6 voci for orchestra (arr. from Bach's Musical Offering)	8:38
Arnold Schoenberg	Transcription for orchestra of Bach's Prelude & Fugue in E flat major	15:24
Leopold Stokowski	Little Fugue in G minor, transcription for orchestra (after Bach, BWV 578)	3:57
Gustav Mahler	Suite aus den Orchestrawerken, for orchestra, harpsichord & organ (after J.S. Bach)	20:20

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