Customer Reviews

Bach: Sonatas & Partitas BWV 1001-1006

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recording is excellent. The lines are bought out and sustained as well as any guitarist could (and far better than any violinist can), the tone is sweet and delicate and thoroughly Baroque, the phrasing excellent. One of the best conceptions of these works.

The Sonatas and Partitas are some of my favorite Bach works. They are actually the first Bach works I ever owned on LP, in the Henryk Szyerng recording. I have listened to them countless times, and can hum almost all of them note for note.

I have nothing againts transcriptions, and have, in recent times, enriched my collection with some interesting recordings. The Sonatas and Partitas seem to me a likely candidate for such transcriptions, and, indeed, many lutenists and guitarists have transcribed individual pieces, especially the 1004, with the famous chaconne.

Listening to the Smith recording, my first thought was, What is this music? For some reason it didn't SOUND like the Sonatas and Partitas, but sounded like some very nice Bach music on lute. I cannot put my finger on it, but his transcriptions seem to take all of the energy and force out of these pieces.

His playing is excellent, although often overdone - he sounds like he is trying more to show off than to be musical. There are many notes "added" so he can play very fast, which detracts from the overall musicality. I am sure that guitarists and lutenists will like this, but to me is sounds a bit muddled. He has totally changed the rhythm of the works, trying to impose lute phrasing on music that is too well-known, changing it a great deal. I just listened to part of the first sonata, in both violin (Kuijken) and lute, and the difference is obvious.

One think about the violin music is that it is a mere skeleton, and what makes it work is that Bach somehow manages to make you imagine the polyphony in your head. This is all lost on lute...

Now, while the above is negative, I do feel that this is a very good performance, a fine recording, but it just doesn't "do it" for me. If you are a plucked fan, you will love it, but if you are very familiar with the violin works, you may be disappointed.

The vision of Bach presented here by Hopkinson Smith is magical and inspiring. The sheer beauty of Smith's sound, his lines and overall construction brings tears even after repeated listening.

There is no need to dwell on personal likes or differences when hearing these recordings - you are taken along into a world of greatness both on the part of the composer and performer.

Do not hesitate, but buy it at once!

The ABC classic recording of Eugene Dombois performing Bach: Cello Suite No. 5 transcribed for lute coupled w/other Baroque pieces by Kellner, Conradi and Weiss released on the Seon Series has long been a benchmark recording. In my 48 years of playing guitar and listening to recordings there have been but three Bach discs to really float my boat: Dombois, Hopkinson Smith in transcriptions of Cello Suites No's 4 & 6 and now this Hopkinson Smith. There is no duplication among them.

They have in common that there is no pretense or show. Their conceptions and executions are masterful.

They strike an ideal balance between the issues of two types of listening: dealing with music written for other instruments (Dombois-cello, H. Smith-violin) with what one expects or needs to hear cross over (like particular rhythms) and what can reasonably cross over to be met by the also unique offerings and possibilities in performance from the other instrument with consequent expectations of what listeners from the "plucked" side want or also need to hear. Ideally, the two types of listening go on in the same person like they do to an extent in the performer. Otherwise, the performance of the transcription will always disappoint unless the performer makes an all out effort to "imitate" the predispositions of one listener or the other.

I'm no stranger to expectations not met. I grew up loving Bach: Well Tempered Clavier I,II Leonhardt. I rejected Schiff, Gould and Hewitt (literally sold them off-ironically Schiff and Hewitt Penguin Guide rosettes), but embraced Jarrett (bk.I), Jando (bk.II) and Richter (both). Ironically, I passed over buying Hopkinson Smith because of the Amazon reviews many years ago.

The recording quality is excellent: palpable and supple with small gradations of dynamics, large as life. I was surprised and delighted to learn from reading the disc notes that H.Smith studied with Dombois.

For the most beautiful "beautified" Bach lute prformances - not to be missed - are two volumes with Eduardo Eguez. I suspect these would send some reviewers over the edge because of tasteful lingering here and there. For desert island, non-Bach lute discs to really cherish there are: Weiss Vol.3 w/Michel Cardin, Weiss Vol.3 w/Lutz Kirchhof (no intersection w/Cardin Vol.3), Tabvlatvres de Levt (Le Roy, Morlaye, de Rippe, Paladin) w/Paul O'Dette (hardest to find), Pieces pour Theorbes Francaises w/Jose Moreno, Fantasia de mon Triste w/Christopher Wilson and Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Lute Book w/Paul O'Dette. These are guaranteed winners. (I know; I haven't said a thing about O'Dette's Dowland and Bach or Hopkinson Smith in French Renaissance - definite desert island candidates)