(++++) THE PAST RECONSIDERED

Bach: St. Matthew Passion—No. 3, Herzliebster Jesu; St. John Passion—No. 14, Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück; Flute Partita, BWV 1013; Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 279; Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin; Suite No. 6 for Solo Cello; Johann Rudolph Ahle: Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort—No. 5, Es ist genug. Mak Grgić, microtonal guitar. MicroFest Records. $16.99.

Martin Scherzinger: Etudes. Bobby Mitchell, piano. New Focus Recordings. $16.99.

     It is all too easy for performers skilled on a particular instrument to become self-indulgent in using that instrument to play music that was not intended for it – doing no favors to the composer or, for that matter, the performer. But every once in a while, a reinterpretation, in a very different form, of music that was intended to be played in a specific way, turns out to be intriguing enough to be worth exploring on its own terms. It may not exactly be revelatory, but it is engaging in its own right – and the unusual nature of the adaptation quickly becomes irrelevant as listeners simply enjoy the music being played without needing to think too deeply about ways in which it has been significantly changed to accommodate the instrument and performer. This is the case with a new recording featuring various Bach works performed by Mak Grgić on, of all things, microtonal guitar. This is an instrument capable of being tuned in smaller intervals than traditional guitars and Western instruments in general – that is, intervals beyond the usual tones and semitones. Microtonal instruments play what is, in  essence, an extension of the quarter-tones with which Western composers have long experimented; and microtonal music is actually quite common in nations including India, Indonesia and much of Asia. Western music, though, is not generally written in microtones except when seeking a specific effect, often one that audiences will hear as exotic; and Bach most definitely did not have anything microtonal in mind when writing the Passions or works for flute, violin or cello. However, it is well-known that Bach was deeply concerned about instrumental tuning: The Well-Tempered Clavier refers not to a “good” tuning but to tuning using a specific approach that allowed music to be played in all major or minor keys without sounding out of tune. For this recording, Grgić actually uses a type of tuning from Bach’s time, one created by Bach’s student, Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721-1783). The tuning creates shading and emphasis in the sounds that are different from the ones to which listeners are accustomed – although the differences are generally subtle enough so they do not draw undue attention to themselves or to Grgić. The result is that the transcriptions that make up the entirety of this MicroFest Records disc sound very much like Bach (which of course they are), but with some differences of emphasis and tonal color that render the music neither better nor worse but subtly distinctive. Of course, hearing this material on a guitar, no matter how the guitar is tuned, is a trifle odd – but Bach is so often transcribed for so many different instruments that the solo-guitar approach in itself is not unnerving. Ultimately, the interest of this CD lies not in the use of a microtonal guitar and not in the use of Kirnberger’s tuning but, plainly and simply, in Grgić’s approach to the music. And that approach is sensitive and involving throughout. The very short excerpts from the St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion (each less than a minute long) are resonant and involving, the overtones in Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück being particularly affecting. The four dances that make up the Flute Partita, BWV 1013 are well-contrasted in sound as well as tempo, with the Sarabande in particular gaining in depth in this version. The gentleness of Christ lag in Todesbanden comes through effectively here, too. These versions of the extended solo-violin sonata and solo-cello suite may be a bit more of an acquired taste, if only because the music is so well-known and so often played that the distinctive character of Grgić’s performance on microtonal guitar takes more getting used to than is needed for the shorter works on the CD. Some effects in these works are, however, really striking, such as the opening of the Siciliana in the violin sonata and, in the cello suite, the quiet drama of the Prelude and the bounce of the Courante (which sounds as if it is being played on two instruments even though it is not). The disc concludes with a 90-second selection by Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625-1673) that brings the CD to a gentle close and shows that it is not only Bach’s music that can be effectively presented on an instrument of which neither the composer nor many modern listeners will likely ever have heard.

     There is nothing unusual about the instrument chosen by Martin Scherzinger for the 14 solo Etudes heard on a New Focus Recordings release – it is the piano. But there is something unusual about the music itself, which in its own way is just as much a revisiting and rethinking of the past as is Grgić’s offering of Bach works on microtonal guitar. What Scherzinger does in these short works – and one slightly longer one requiring two pianists – is to juxtapose music by well-known Western composers with rhythmic and other material from Africa (Scherzinger was born in South Africa in 1975 and raised there). This could easily become just another multicultural mingling of disparate elements that do not fit together at all well, but Scherzinger is not looking for a sprinkling of “exoticism” (whatever that might mean in this context) but for a genuine hybridization of material, and manages in multiple cases to come up with works that are wholly engaging in their own right, whatever their provenance. There is plenty of recognizable thematic material here, from Brahms, Chopin, Paganini, Schumann and others. But there is also a considerable amount of what could be called “spicing” that comes partly from Africa and partly from Scherzinger’s personal way of thinking about methods of fitting disparate musical pieces together. The works’ titles are at times over-clever, and some may even be off-putting, not to mention obscure: The Horse Is Not Mine, a Hobby Horse; Fast zu sorglos; Mbele ni Nyuma; Mbiras de St. Gervais. But unlike much contemporary music, in which the titles must be analyzed and understood before listeners can hope to figure out what a composer is getting at, these works by and large speak to audiences on their own terms, whether or not someone hearing the disc knows to what the titles refer. Actually, in some cases, the referents are clear enough: Chopi-Chopin is a fascinating reconsideration of Chopin, while Paganini, Piano Hero explores a theme well-known from many other composers’ explorations of it. Likembe-Liszt, on the other hand, is scarcely Lisztian in any obvious sense, being Scherzinger’s attempt to convey, on the piano, the sound of the lamellophone, an instrument that uses tuned metal or bamboo tongues and is related to the Jew’s harp. Some rather self-referential titles among these Etudes give listeners a few things to think about even while listening to the music unfold under the highly skilled hands of pianist Bobby Mitchell. Among such pieces are Rondo à la Rondo and the more-or-less-fugue Errata Erratica. And then there are single-word-titled pieces that pretty much speak for themselves: Occidentalism, which is gently lyrical and rather pretty, and Gigue, which is strongly rhythmic but extends rather than exemplifies the dance form of its title. Also here are two separate pieces called Verso il capo, both of which sound a bit like extracts of the French Baroque: one for solo piano that runs five minutes and one of twice that length played by Mitchell and Tom Rosenkranz. It is sometimes a bit hard to figure out just where Scherzinger is going with a piece and just what he is trying to communicate – but because the Etudes are musically effective in and of themselves, the uncertainty does not seem like one of those puzzles sometimes created by contemporary composers with the apparent intent of mystifying the audience. Instead, what Scherzinger delivers is musical portraits of various kinds, their subject matter often but not always derived from Western music or musical styles, but their overall effect – and effectiveness – being tied to the skill with which Scherzinger adapts material from earlier composers to his own sensibilities, all the while producing pieces that are pianistically satisfying and, unlike so much of today’s music, worthy of being heard repeatedly simply for the pleasure of engaging with the material and the skillful way Scherzinger handles it.