The Andreas Bach
Buch is one of the most interesting
sources of late 17th and early 18th
century keyboard music. It was actually
copied by Johann Sebastian's elder brother
Johann Christoph (1671-1721) and bears
the name of the latter's son, hence
the title Andreas Bach Buch.
It contains a bewildering array of pieces
for different keyboard instruments.
It provides, for example, a source for
the Passacaglia of Bach, two of Buxtehude's
Praeludia (BuxWV 137, 150) as well as
his two Ciacconas and Passacaglia, and
pieces by other Northern German composers
including Reincken and Bohm. But perhaps
the most interesting feature of the
collection is its multi-nationalism.
The keyboard transcription of the excerpts
from Marais's opera 'Alcide' could be
explained by the fact that French operas
were performed at the time in Hamburg.
The presence of the Venetian Pollarolo's
Capriccio is harder to explain. The
complete list of composers is very interesting
so I'll give it here in the hope that
you are similarly curious: Bach, Bohm,
Buttstett, Buxtehude, Fischer, Kuchtenthal,
Kuhnau, Marais, (transcription) Marchand,
Pachelbel, Pestel, Pollarolo, Reincken,
Telemann (transcription), Witt.
Hortus here present
the astonishingly young (b. 1985) French
organist and harpsichordist Benjamin
Alard in an interesting selection of
these pieces. Alard is a former student
of Zehnder and Marcon at the Schola
Cantorum Basiliensis, and is, at the
age of just 20, the organist of the
new Aubertin instrument in the Church
of St-Louis-en-L'Ile in Paris, an instrument
about which I waxed lyrical in a review
last year.
Alard plays brilliantly
here. I'm bound to say that I find his
harpsichord playing more natural than
his organ playing - he in fact won the
International Harpsichord Competition
in Brugge in 2004. His Buxtehude playing
is very French, with many added complex
ornaments. But Alard's organ playing
is also first-rate. I like very much
his choice to play the BWV 911 Toccata
on the organ - this manualiter Toccatas
of Bach are usually played on the harpsichord
simply because of their manualiter status.
The Dutch organist Reitze Smits, among
others, has convincingly argued for
their performance on the organ, and
when you hear this recording of the
c minor piece, you'll understand why.
I've written about
the 1999 Mahler organ in Baigorry in
another review and in this recording
I'm even more taken with it. This two
manual instrument inspired by 18th century
Southern German organs sounds here profoundly
beautiful.
Hortus produce yet
another clever, relevant, interesting
recording. The booklet is well presented
though the English text is occasionally
slightly warped. "Johann Sebastian Bach's
early years were nothing but carefree"
should of course read "Johann Sebastian
Bach's early years were anything but
carefree".
Chris Bragg
Benjamin Alard (organ and harpsichord) 
for
details
