Thursday 17 January 2019

CD Review (The Straits Times, January 2019)



BACH Trios
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello 
Chris Thile, Mandolin
Edgar Meyer, Bass
Nonesuch 7559-79392-0 / *****

The trio of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolinist Chris Thile and bassist Edgar Meyer make no pretensions about the authenticity of their album of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). All the pieces are co-written arrangements for their peculiar combination of instruments. The performances however sound unusually idiomatic, as if contemporary with the Baroque period itself.  

Ma and Thile alternate between and share the melodic lines while Meyer provides the just as vital backing, with much counterpoint in between. Thus works like the Trio Sonata No.6 in G major  (BWV.530, originally for organ) and Sonata in G minor (BWV.1029, for viola da gamba and keyboard), the two longest works  and both in three movements, make for excellent showcases.


Also significant is the Prelude and Fugue in E minor (BWV.548, for organ), known as “The Wedge” because of the widening intervals in its fugue, which receives an absorbing performance despite sounding quite different from the original. 

More familiar are the Chorale Preludes Wachet auf (Sleepers Awake), Ich ruft zu Dir (I Call To Thee) and Erbarme Dich mein (Have Mercy On Me), as well as selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier and The Art Of Fugue. Both spiritual and vivacious, this enjoyable album yet again demonstrates the timelessness of Bach. 

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