For someone who said
Bach “was not my thing” when he recorded the D minor English
Suite (read the review here), Piotr Anderszewski has taken to
the Leipzig master’s music with a vengeance. First there was
the Fifth French Suite and Overture in the French Style for
Harmonia Mundi. Now we have three of the keyboard partitas,
works that for Bach became the apex of the baroque dance suite.
Anderszewski’s
approach to Bach has changed a lot in the meantime. His D minor
English Suite was introspective, emotionally open, even
poignant. Here his approach is a total opposite. This is
extroverted, quicksilver Bach, more decorative than emotive.
The playing is still incredibly good, with Anderszewski’s
approach to Bach’s counterpoint very much intact. As before,
each line of counterpoint not only takes on a different range of
tone color but also becomes a personality in itself, making the
music as much conversation as it is musical exchange and
interplay.
But where before
Anderszewski took his time with the music, here it becomes
rushed to the point of seeming breathless. Details rush by and
are gone in a whirlwind of notes. There is no space in which to
delve into the music emotionally – in fact, it almost seems that
Anderszewski is avoiding that quality of Bach’s music
altogether. Worse, Anderszewski has jettisoned the idea that
these pieces are sets of dances. The rhythms and accents are
too stylized, the tempos too virtuosic, for anyone to
realistically move to them.
Is this impressive Bach
playing, then? Yes. On a technical level, Anderszewski’s
playing is extremely impressive. Does it fulfill the promise he
showed that he saw much more in Bach than intellectualized
fingerwork? Sadly, no. As good as the music is here, I miss
the soul that Anderszewski showed behind the notes and within
himself.
Recordings
by Anderszewski