Busoni: Fantasia nach J.S. Bach, BV 253; Bach/Busoni: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004—Chaconne; Bach/Rachmaninoff: Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006—Prelude, Gavotte, Gigue; Bach/Gabriele Leporatti: Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006—Loure, Menuet I & II, Bourrée; Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2. Gabriele Leporatti, piano. Etera Classics. $19.99.
A major attraction of a new Etera Classics CD featuring Gabriele Leporatti is the chance to delve deeply not only into musical creation but also into musical re-creation: the thoughts that go through pianists’ minds when encountering keyboard works by earlier composers, and the way those thoughts manifest themselves in reproduction of those works and, in some cases, in recomposed – not merely performed – versions of the earlier material. Both Busoni and Rachmaninoff were distinguished pianist/composers, and both thought deeply about Bach – who never saw or wrote for the modern piano – and found ways to bring the Baroque master’s works into their own 20th-century era. That Bach’s music continues to intrigue musicians in similar ways is shown by Leporatti’s own compositional contribution to this CD.
The personalized elements of this piano recital cover considerably more than a century. Busoni’s Fantasia nach J.S. Bach, BV 253 (wrongly designated “BWV 253” on this recording, which would actually make it a Bach work!) was created by Busoni in 1909, after his father’s death. This is thus a highly personal work for Busoni on two levels: that of a tribute to Bach and that of a memorial to his father, to whom the work is dedicated. It uses three Bach pieces as sources: the chorale variations Christ, der du bist der helle Tag, BWV 766, and the chorale preludes Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott, BWV 602, and Gottes Sohn ist kommen, BWV 703. A work of searching emotionalism with a very strong Romantic feeling about it, the piece in no way attempts to bring Bach’s aural environment onto a keyboard different from the ones for which he wrote – rather, it tries to transport Bach’s Lutheranism into a much later and already more-secular age, seeking meaning on a different level by incorporating fragments of Bach’s chorales into a deeply felt work that treats Bach’s themes as building blocks for an emotionally meaningful memorial.
Leporatti leans fully into the Romanticism of Busoni’s Fantasia and, indeed, keeps an apt Romantic (and post-Romantic) sound in all the works on this disc, with lots of pedal and a series of grand gestures and dramatic emphases throughout. The second work on the CD, Busoni’s version of the Chaconne from Bach’s D minor Partita, BWV 1004, is much better-known than the Fantasia but is clearly cut from the same cloth: it is very pianistic, very strongly emotional, and very weighty in a manner different from that of Bach’s original – thoroughly un-Bachian in sensibility and sound but sharing an underlying level of communicativeness with its source. Leporatti’s highly dramatic handling of the material, including rubato that fits Busoni’s milieu but is quite foreign to Bach’s, makes the work strongly declamatory in ways untrue to its time of origin but quite fitting to its time of reconstitution.
Rachmaninoff’s handling of Bach in his 1933 arrangement of the first, third and sixth movements from the Partita, BWV 1006, contrasts interestingly with Busoni’s expansive transcriptions. Rachmaninoff is much truer to Bach’s esthetic than Busoni is: the underlying Baroque material is kept clearly on display even as the coloristic effects, of which there are many, dominate the overall sound of the movements. Leporatti here shows his delicate side, never trying to make the piano sound like a harpsichord, much less like the solo violin for which the Partitas were written – which in any case is impossible – but bringing the contrapuntal elements of Bach’s writing more to the fore and not using deeply resonant chords to enlarge or obscure them, as in the Busoni material. The Rachmaninoff transcriptions are more immediately engaging than Busoni’s, less inclined to monumentality bordering on turgidity – and are followed by some interesting transcription work that cements Leporatti’s own personal connection to this material from a compositional standpoint, as he offers his own versions of the second, fourth and fifth movements of this Prelude. This could easily come across as overreaching on Leporatti’s part, but instead emerges as a journey through a kind of expressiveness that differs both from Rachmaninoff’s and from Busoni’s: there is gentle lyrical flow in all three movements, bringing in elements akin to Busoni’s expansiveness while generally retaining Rachmaninoff’s focus on ensuring that Bach’s foundational forms and melodies remain clearly audible and in the forefront. The movements constitute an étude of sorts, an exercise in pianism as well as transcription, and proffer Leporatti’s feelings about interpreting this Bach music in ways that go beyond simply playing it.
Leporatti then concludes the CD with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2, which is not Bach-derived but which bookends the disc by showcasing Rachmaninoff’s personal soundworld and emotional expressiveness in much the way that Busoni’s Fantasia puts his on display. Leporatti plays the second (1931) version of the sonata, which is shorter than the first (1913) and technically somewhat simplified. Listeners familiar with the work tend strongly to prefer one version or the other; but in this context, what matters most is the emotional intensity – some of it over-the-top, as is often the case in Rachmaninoff – and the way in which, in the context of this CD, the music complements that of Busoni and shows the very considerable distance, on multiple levels, between Bach and both of the later composers. In truth, the Rachmaninoff sonata does not fit especially well with the rest of the material on the disc, but that fact simply highlights the very strong personal elements that run through the entire CD: this recording is as much a journey into the mind and heart of Leporatti as it is one into the thinking and feeling of Busoni and Rachmaninoff regarding Bach and their own pianistic environments. In some senses, this is a production that will be most appreciated by pianists, for whom its intricate web of transcription and interpretation will be especially insightful. The recording does, however, reach out effectively to a more-general audience, allowing listeners to experience reinterpretations of Bach not only within the context of the 20th century but also within that of the 21st, in which the Baroque master quite clearly still maintains relevance and meaningfulness.
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