This budget four-disc set from Scotland's Linn Records collects four individual discs of Bach's music as transcribed for and played on the lute by Nigel North. The program includes the sonatas and partitas for solo violin and the suites for solo cello, not any of Bach's original lute music or keyboard music, which is easier to transcribe for the lute. The interest of the solo violin and cello pieces lies partly in the way they succeed in spite of their limitations. Yet they were transcribed for harpsichord in Bach's own ...
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This budget four-disc set from Scotland's Linn Records collects four individual discs of Bach's music as transcribed for and played on the lute by Nigel North. The program includes the sonatas and partitas for solo violin and the suites for solo cello, not any of Bach's original lute music or keyboard music, which is easier to transcribe for the lute. The interest of the solo violin and cello pieces lies partly in the way they succeed in spite of their limitations. Yet they were transcribed for harpsichord in Bach's own time, even perhaps by Bach himself or a member of his family or inner circle, and the notion of transferability is itself embedded in Bach's aesthetic. In the event, North's performances succeed above all because they are marked by a noteworthy combination of grace and technical facility, but also for the same reason Bach's works do -- he makes virtues out of limitations. His transcriptions, especially in the violin pieces, are remarkably free, but they never call attention to...
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