JS Bach - The Six Partitas
£26.55
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Hyperion
Cat No: CDA683112
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Instrumental
Release Date: 28th May 2021
Contents
Artists
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)About
‘A comprehensive overview of every style available to Bach, from the archaic to the modern’: Mahan Esfahani rises confidently to the challenge of his own brilliant appraisal of the Partitas in performances brimming with intellectual and emotional energy.
‘Esfahani perfectly understands the toccatas’ architecture, yet celebrates their quirkiness and, interrogating every note, is generous with expressive pauses’ – BBC Music Magazine (JS Bach - Toccatas, CDA68244)
‘Esfahani perfectly understands the toccatas’ architecture, yet celebrates their quirkiness and, interrogating every note, is generous with expressive pauses’ – BBC Music Magazine (JS Bach - Toccatas, CDA68244)
Sound/Video
Paused
-
1Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 1. Praeludium
-
2Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 2. Allemande
-
3Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 3. Corrente
-
4Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 4. Sarabande
-
5Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 5. Menuet I – Menuet II – Menuet I da capo
-
6Partita No.1 in B flat, BWV 825: 6. Giga
-
7Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 1. Sinfonia
-
8Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 2. Allemande
-
9Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 3. Courante
-
10Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 4. Sarabande
-
11Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 5. Rondeaux
-
12Partita No.2 in C minor, BWV 826: 6. Capriccio
-
13Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 1. Toccata
-
14Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 2. Allemande
-
15Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 3. Corrente
-
16Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 4. Air
-
17Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 5. Sarabande
-
18Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 6. Tempo di Gavotta
-
19Partita No.6 in E minor, BWV 830: 7. Gigue
-
20Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 1. Fantasia
-
21Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 2. Allemande
-
22Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 3. Corrente
-
23Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 4. Sarabande
-
24Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 5. Burlesca
-
25Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 6. Scherzo
-
26Partita No.3 in A minor, BWV 827: 7. Gigue
-
27Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 1. Ouverture
-
28Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 2. Allemande
-
29Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 3. Courante
-
30Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 4. Aria
-
31Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 5. Sarabande
-
32Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 6. Menuet
-
33Partita No.4 in D, BWV 828: 7. Gigue
-
34Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 1. Praeambulum
-
35Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 2. Allemande
-
36Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 3. Corrente
-
37Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 4. Sarabande
-
38Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 5. Tempo di Minuetta
-
39Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 6. Passepied
-
40Partita No.5 in G, BWV 829: 7. Gigue
Europadisc Review
Alongside the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier and the ‘Goldberg’ Variations, the Six Partitas stand at the apex of Bach's keyboard works. Published individually between 1726 and 1730 and then as a set in 1731 under the title Clavier-Übung (‘keyboard practice’) in 1731, in the words of their joint title-page they were ‘composed for music-lovers, to delight their spirits’. This was Bach’s official Opus 1, collecting together six fabulously diverse yet artfully planned takes on the Baroque keyboard suite which combine French, Italianate and German styles while simultaneously looking back to tradition and forward to the latest musical trends and innovations.
Having already recorded the ‘Goldberg’ Variations for Deutsche Grammophon, and relaunched his project to record Bach’s complete keyboard works on Hyperion with the much less well-known Toccatas, the brilliantly iconoclast harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani now turns his attentions to the Partitas, and the results are indeed wholly delightful. As with his recording of the Toccatas (which was one of our Discs of the Year of 2019), he has subjected the surviving sources – printed and manuscript copies (no autograph survives) – to careful scrutiny, proposing thoughtful and sometimes provocative solutions to the problems they present to today's performer. And he uses the same instrument – from the workshop of Jukka Ollikka in Prague (where Esfahani is now based) – combining features from Bach's contemporary Michael Mietke with a 16’ soundboard inspired by a 1912 Pleyel harpsichord, a drawing together of tradition and innovation very much in the spirit of the works themselves.
Once again, the cover is graced by one of the striking character heads by the German sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), as generously detailed, full of character and timelessly modern as both Bach’s music and Esfahani’s own performances. Moods range widely from the touchingly intimate (try the Sarabande of the Fourth Partita, in D major, or Menuet II of no.1 in B flat), through Gallic elegance (the Rondeaux of no.2 in C minor) to the blazingly forthright (the splendidly titled Burlesca of no.3 in A minor). The lute stop used for the Tempo di Minuetta of no.5 in G major is particularly felicitous – note that this is not actually a minuet, but rather a character piece ‘in the tempo of a minuet’. Similarly beguiling is the Gigue that concludes the same work, while the equivalent movement of no.6 in E minor with its archaic time signature prompts Esfahani to one of his most imaginative performance solutions, initially employing dotted figuration before using triplets on the repeat, and then the other way round for the movement's second half. And listen to how Ollikka's instrument is allowed to reverberate at the end of each section!
The opening to each Partita bears a different designation – Praeludium, Sinfonia, Fantasia, Ouverture, Praeambulum and Toccata – and Esfahani has a knack for deploying just the right registration and tempo to maximise the character of each one. Every strand of the music comes across clearly, even in the fantastically nimble fingerwork of the E minor Corrente, while Esfahani's use of touch and rubato gives the music a freshness that is constantly engaging, as if the works were coming into being, quasi extempore, before the listener’s very ears. In the Sinfonia of the C minor work, Esfahani uses the highly florid readings from a 1760s manuscript by JG Müthel to accentuate this improvisatory feeling.
Of the many fine recordings now available of these six masterpieces, this now ranks as one of the very best, abundant in spirit and detail, carefully considered, with an unerring feel for tempo and for the ‘heart’ of each work, while also challenging received wisdom and preconceptions. Music, instrument and performer meet in ideal conjunction, and this ongoing series of recordings is one of the outstanding additions to the Bach catalogue in recent decades.
Having already recorded the ‘Goldberg’ Variations for Deutsche Grammophon, and relaunched his project to record Bach’s complete keyboard works on Hyperion with the much less well-known Toccatas, the brilliantly iconoclast harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani now turns his attentions to the Partitas, and the results are indeed wholly delightful. As with his recording of the Toccatas (which was one of our Discs of the Year of 2019), he has subjected the surviving sources – printed and manuscript copies (no autograph survives) – to careful scrutiny, proposing thoughtful and sometimes provocative solutions to the problems they present to today's performer. And he uses the same instrument – from the workshop of Jukka Ollikka in Prague (where Esfahani is now based) – combining features from Bach's contemporary Michael Mietke with a 16’ soundboard inspired by a 1912 Pleyel harpsichord, a drawing together of tradition and innovation very much in the spirit of the works themselves.
Once again, the cover is graced by one of the striking character heads by the German sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), as generously detailed, full of character and timelessly modern as both Bach’s music and Esfahani’s own performances. Moods range widely from the touchingly intimate (try the Sarabande of the Fourth Partita, in D major, or Menuet II of no.1 in B flat), through Gallic elegance (the Rondeaux of no.2 in C minor) to the blazingly forthright (the splendidly titled Burlesca of no.3 in A minor). The lute stop used for the Tempo di Minuetta of no.5 in G major is particularly felicitous – note that this is not actually a minuet, but rather a character piece ‘in the tempo of a minuet’. Similarly beguiling is the Gigue that concludes the same work, while the equivalent movement of no.6 in E minor with its archaic time signature prompts Esfahani to one of his most imaginative performance solutions, initially employing dotted figuration before using triplets on the repeat, and then the other way round for the movement's second half. And listen to how Ollikka's instrument is allowed to reverberate at the end of each section!
The opening to each Partita bears a different designation – Praeludium, Sinfonia, Fantasia, Ouverture, Praeambulum and Toccata – and Esfahani has a knack for deploying just the right registration and tempo to maximise the character of each one. Every strand of the music comes across clearly, even in the fantastically nimble fingerwork of the E minor Corrente, while Esfahani's use of touch and rubato gives the music a freshness that is constantly engaging, as if the works were coming into being, quasi extempore, before the listener’s very ears. In the Sinfonia of the C minor work, Esfahani uses the highly florid readings from a 1760s manuscript by JG Müthel to accentuate this improvisatory feeling.
Of the many fine recordings now available of these six masterpieces, this now ranks as one of the very best, abundant in spirit and detail, carefully considered, with an unerring feel for tempo and for the ‘heart’ of each work, while also challenging received wisdom and preconceptions. Music, instrument and performer meet in ideal conjunction, and this ongoing series of recordings is one of the outstanding additions to the Bach catalogue in recent decades.
Reviews
It’s refreshing to hear the fugue of the Sixth Partita’s Toccata so beautifully rounded and embellished, as well as how Esfahani relishes the Sarabande’s dissonances. As for the question of playing the Gigue’s main theme in duple or triple metre, Esfahani serves it up both ways. Clearly his pursuit of scholarship never lapses into pedantry either as performer or annotator. Jed DistlerGramophone August 2021
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here