While Brabec may be a very capable guitarist, he does
not show understand towards the music of Bach. The opening work, the
Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, which is one of Bach’s finest works for
plucked instruments, features a very subtle rhythmic structure; an excellent
musician plays the prelude with the slight rhythmic idiosyncrasy that
Bach composed, which is difficult, yet which shows the depth of this
deceivingly simple piece. Lubomir Brabec plays this prelude with a wooden
rhythm, not seeking to develop the subtle way the notes are played off
the beat. His dynamics are, at times, misconceived with bass notes ringing
out far too loud, too long or too short, and treble notes not sounding
rich enough.
He attacks the prelude BWV 999 - another apparently
simple piece - at breakneck speed, turning its arpeggios into brief
series of notes with little roundness, little colour. In the following
fugue, Brabec has difficulty maintaining the speed he begins with, and
ends up slowing down at the difficult sections. Little or no feeling
is conveyed. The same can be said of his interpretation of the Chaconne,
arguable the most difficult of Bach’s works for guitar or lute. There
is no overall approach here, simply a guitarist playing the notes from
beginning to end.
This disc is best avoided. While Lubomir Brabec may
be a good guitarist with certain music, his approach to Bach’s music
is far too restricted to its surface to be of interest.
Kirk McElhearn
Lubomir Brabec,
Guitar.