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JS BACH Keyboard Partitas BWV825-830
Author: Stephen Plaistow
When in trouble, play Bach wise advice from Edwin Fischer to a pupil. He was makin
g an observation to a fellow performer about Bachs restorative and reorienting po
wers; no doubt, but perhaps alerting all of us to the inspiring breath we can dr
aw from the fertility and humanity of a composer whose imagination and habit of p
erfection (John Eliot Gardiners phrase) drove him to discover in music just about
everything. For the keyboard player, an engagement with Bach is a constant from
childhood, and it becomes essential to daily life. For Beethoven, for Mozart in
his maturity and for Chopin, it was the same. Practise some Bach for me, Chopin us
ed to say to his departing pupils as they went through the door. Yet no music is
more demanding to realise in sound, nor quicker to reveal inadequacies of perce
ption.
Which brings me to Igor Levit and not a moment too soon, you may think. The dist
inction of this set of the Partitas, following his Sony debut recording of the l
ast five Beethoven sonatas (11/13), will establish him in the minds of many, Im s
ure, as a major artist. He played those sonatas as though he had lived with late
Beethoven a long time and had perceived and understood everything. His versions
of the six Bach Partitas show a comparable address and maturity. Above all, the
y are fresh and joyous.
How demanding they are. On the title-page of the collected edition of 1731, brou
ght out as his Op 1 and a self-publishing job, Bach said he had composed them for
music lovers, to delight their senses. They soon made a great noise in the music
al world but earned him, too, a reputation for their technical difficulty: as if
, as a contemporary put it, the composer had expected what he alone could do on t
he keyboard. An early player of them, said to have been accomplished, described t
hem as making me seem like a beginner each time.
Complex music but not complicated. Levits achievement is to miss nothing of their
scope and variety as compositions while conveying what it is that makes each on
e a unity, not an anthology, demanding to be performed complete. Where other pra
ctitioners offer regular accents and a perhaps over-cautious traversal, tethered
to the notes, Levit never fails to project a commanding overview an aerial pers
pective, almost in addition to the detail of phrasing and articulations and the
nooks and crannies of melodic lines. Only the most gifted interpreters manage bo
th. It energises his performances and makes them seem to inhabit a state of grac
e. And it contributes to our enjoyment in another way, drawing us on as we liste
n and keeping us curious as to what lies around the next corner. A first impress
ion might be of quicker tempi than usual and of a fleetness that challenges us t
o keep up. Yet one quickly registers that nothing, in fact, is rushed or driven
too hard not a phrase or a paragraph, nor even (most important) the execution of
an ornament.
I like very much Levits ornaments and embellishments in general. They are always
a living feature of the line, arising from within, not stuck on from without. In
addition they show awareness of performance practice and what may be appropriat
e in each instance, with decoration added to second times discreetly and with an a
ir of spontaneity, and never to excess. Levit has a sure judgment of when to lea
ve well alone, as CPE Bach advised when discussing this aspect of his fathers mus
ic. The majestic Sarabande of No 1 in B flat (disc 1, tr 4) gets a minimum of gr
aces in its repeats barely noticeable indeed. But there needs to be some if secon
d time through is to have any sense; otherwise why do it?
The playing of the Gigues in the Partitas and the final Capriccio in No 2 in C m
inor invite the performers virtuosity as a welcome guest to the feast. Levit does
nt disappoint. Bach developed these movements to make thrilling conclusions, just
as he had made the opening of each work something imposing and unexpected. That
was possibly his most original contribution to the suite of his time: theres a P
raeludium in No 1, a three-part Sinfonia in No 2, a French Overture in No 4 (the
D major), a Praeambulum in No 5 and a grand Toccata and Fugue in No 6 (E minor)
. They help to make each partita announce itself as something ambitious and a un
ity, not just a succession of dances. With Levit, if you start at the beginning,
you go on to the end; no question. Bach mediates between the French and the Ita
lian styles in the course of the six works, and Levit doesnt miss a trick. Finall
y, let me praise his cantabile playing (a singing style), which Bach extolled to
his students as a constant aim.
Harpsichord or piano? Forget it. Or rather, let us have both. If on the piano, h
owever, which isnt a second-best, I incline to those exponents who are not apolog
etic about their instrument and at the same time show awareness, relish even, of
what the best harpsichordists have achieved, from Gustav Leonhardt to Andreas S
taier (I mention two exceptional players who have made complete sets). As to oth
er pianists, I would cite Richard Goode, on a par with Murray Perahia; maybe And
rs Schiff as well. Levits version has added to the discography of this inexhaustib
le music with distinction and I believe it will run and run. Theres nothing about
him in the booklet as if to say, its not about me, the music is enough. But if y
ou havent come across him before I can report that hes of Russian-German descent (
shades of Sviatoslav Richter) and is 27 this year. I wonder what hell do next.