There are many ways to perform Bach’s Musical
Offering but they basically fall into two types: versions
for small orchestra and those for small chamber ensembles.
Neville Marriner’s performance with the Academy of Saint Martin
in the Fields offers a good example of the former (Philips Duo,
442 5562, two lower-mid-price CDs with Art of Fugue),
while a performance directed by Davitt Moroney presents a good
version in the chamber format. Not currently available, recently
on a budget-price 7-CD Harmonia Mundi set HMX290 8084.90.
I enjoy hearing both, but the ASMF version somehow
seems more appropriate at home in SE London and the Moroney
in our small flat in the quieter surroundings of the New Forest;
this means that I don’t have it to hand for comparisons – which
is a shame, because the new Somm version essentially belongs
in the same camp.
The Musical Offering on its own used to
be perfectly adequate on LP, but it would make quite a short
CD; the original full-price CD of the ASMF performance ran to
a mere 49 minutes. Somm frame it on the new recording with
Gustav Leonhardt’s reconstruction of the Harpsichord Concerto
in d, BWV1059, and Nicholas Jackson’s arrangement as an instrumental
Trio Sonata of the Organ Sonata No.3, BWV527.
Only a fragment has survived of Bach’s Eighth
Keyboard Concerto, but Gustav Leonhardt has used the identical
music in the opening Sinfonia of Cantata No.35
and the second Sinfonia from that cantata to reconstruct
the outer movements, while his erstwhile student, Nicholas Jackson,
has added a Siciliana slow movement, again derived from
the same cantata. After all, Bach and Handel were forever ‘borrowing’
from themselves – and sometimes from others.
The resulting reconstruction sounds pretty convincing
to me in this lively, foot-tapping performance, though the recording
makes the ensemble sound rather larger than the solo harpsichord,
oboe, two violins and continuo listed; turning the volume down
a notch or two helped to make the sound more credibly small-scale.
At my normal listening volume I thought the harpsichord a little
too clangorous and prominent in the opening movement; it sounds
much more tastefully subdued in the Siciliana and the
finale.
Nicholas Jackson’s notes in the booklet refer
to the slow movement as a siciliana, the rear insert
as a siciliano; both are correct, but it would have been
better to have kept to one or the other. I would have liked
more information about the harpsichord employed here. The Times
referred to Jackson’s debut at the Wigmore Hall as worthy of
Landowska; his instrument is clearly not one of the metal monsters
that she used to play, but there were times when I thought its
sound not of the most subtle variety.
The Musical Offering arose from a visit
which Bach made to his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, at the court
of Frederick the Great of Prussia, a flautist of no mean ability.
Jackson’s detailed notes suggest that the musical theme which
Frederick gave to Bach to elaborate was designed as a trick;
in any event, though Bach worked up a set of ricercars
and canons and a trio sonata in the modish galant style
and presented them on fine paper, elaborately bound and with
a fulsome dedication to Frederick, the allergnädigster König,
the most gracious King of the title page, seems never to have
perused the volume, much less to have rewarded its composer.
The ricercars and canons are written with
academic rigour and, to most modern tastes, are the least interesting
part of the Offering. A canon cancricans, which
crawls sideways like a crab, sounds like fun, but it’s strictly
academic fun. Performances of these parts can often sound dutiful,
even, dare I say, a little boring – a danger which I don’t think
Concertante of London entirely avoid. From recollection, Moroney
et al don’t entirely avoid it either; in fact, among
small-scale performances I think the newer version has the edge.
Though he employs a larger group, Neville Marriner’s
version is in several ways more subtle than Jackson’s, never
overwhelming the music. Whereas Jackson sticks to the four
players who perform the trio sonata, Marriner varies the instrumentation
much more, with Nicholas Kraemer, for example, making a sensitive
input on both harpsichord and organ; the organ is especially
effective in the opening Ricercar a 3, where Jackson
employs the harpsichord.
Kraemer’s slower tempo, too, makes for a more
effective opening: 6:14 against Jackson’s 5:30; the music seems
to arise slowly from a distance. In the Canon perpetuus
super Thema Regium, based on the theme which Frederick set,
Marriner’s tempo works well, too; slightly faster this time,
with harpsichord as part of the instrumentation, instead of
organ.
The trio sonata which ends the Offering,
with its prominent flute part, designed as part of the flattery
of Frederick, is much the most interesting part of the work
(tracks 17-20); indeed, it’s often performed on its own. It
receives a much more attractive performance from Concertante
of London than the preceding sections; this and the concluding
trio sonata arrangement of Organ Sonata No.3 (trs.21-23)
make the CD much more worthwhile – worth buying for these seven
tracks alone.
Yet the ASMF/Marriner version of the Offering’s
trio sonata is also excellent – just as sensitive to the music
and lively in its performance as the new version. It’s swings
and roundabouts as far as tempi are concerned; the greatest
difference is in the Andante larghetto third movement,
where the ASMF players take 3:35 against Concertante of London’s
2:50. I do think that the Concertante players have the edge
here over ASMF’s slightly lugubrious tempo.
Jackson chooses to move the trio sonata to the
end of the Offering, which works very well. Marriner
places it at the mid-point of his version, as is usual, which
means that there are six more ricercars and canons to
follow, inevitably creating something of an anticlimax. Yet
the 6-part ricercar which ends the Philips recording
sounds well at Marriner’s more stately tempo (7:16 against Jackson’s
5:57).
The Somm recording of the Offering and
the Trio Sonata in d sounds much more intimate and appropriate
than that of the opening Harpsichord Concerto; I don’t
think it’s just that my ear had adapted. Even so, the 1979
Philips ADD recording of the ASMF in some respects sounds more
truthful; it’s certainly not put to shame by the newer version.
The notes in the Somm booklet are very informative,
though less frank in evaluating the Offering than Lothar
Hoffman-Ebrecht’s in the original full-price version of the
Philips: ‘In ihnen stellt Bach die geistige Vertiefung des Kunstwerks
über seine sinnenhafte Erscheining’ – ‘Here Bach places the
intellectual/spiritual depth of his artistic creation above
its sensory impact’.
The Philips 2-CD set is on offer for around £8.50
from several online dealers, which makes it less expensive than
the Somm – and you get a good performance of the Art of Fugue
as coupling, often running to two CDs by itself, which makes
for a more attractive proposition than Somm’s shorter couplings.
I hate to sound lukewarm about the new disc – I enjoyed listening
to it; it’s certainly head and shoulders better than the Ars
Rediviva recording on a Supraphon LP from which I got to know
the music – but artistic and cost-based considerations combine
to make me prefer the Philips. I haven’t heard the Münchinger
performances on Double Decca, also with Art of Fugue
(deleted?), or the single-CD Naxos (8.553286), but I can’t imagine
that they are anywhere near as good as the Marriner; several
of the tempi on the Naxos seem distinctly on the slow side.
For those who like his style, Reinhard Goebel’s version is still
available on budget-price Eloquence 469 6802 for less than £5.
I was going to leave matters there, but Bach
bids us seek and find in the Latin subtitle of one of the canons
– Quaerendo invenietis – so I couldn’t resist throwing
another performance into the ring: Ensemble Sonnerie on a DDD
Virgin recording (5 45139-2). They offer only the Musical
Offering, but, with varied instrumentation, including alternative
takes for some of the movements, they run to 72 minutes. No
organ this time, just Gary Cooper on the harpsichord, so some
of the magic of Kraemer’s opening ricercar is lost, but
this is a very sensitive opening and my ear didn’t crave anything
more colourful. The promise of the opening is kept throughout
the recording.
Not content to stay with the instrumentation
required for the Trio Sonata, Ensemble Sonnerie employ flute,
two violins, viola, oboe d’amore, oboe da caccia, harpsichord,
bassoon and viola da gamba. The players are all distinguished:
Wilbert Hazelzet, Paul Goodwin, Frances Eustace, Monica Huggett,
Pavlo Beznosiuk, Sarah Cunningham and Gary Cooper. They choose
to place the Trio Sonata on tracks 12-15 out of 17, with just
the repeat of the canon perpetuus and the ricercar
a 6 to round off the performance. They allow that final
ricercar even more time than the ASMF players, at 8:28,
and the result is most impressive, in solo harpsichord format,
to contrast with the earlier performance with a rich combination
of instruments. I’m now inclined to rate this the best version
of the Musical Offering that I’ve ever heard; it raises
all the music to a level of enjoyment that I’d derived only
from the Trio Sonata before.
The Virgin recording is first-rate, placing all
the instruments clearly but not over-analytical. I downloaded
the lossless flac version from passionato.com
and found it excellent; there’s also a less expensive 320kbps
mp3 version.
At full price, then, my recommendation is Ensemble
Sonnerie on Virgin. The new Somm version is well worth having
at mid price, especially if you find the two extra works attractive.
The best bargain is offered by Neville Marriner and the Academy
on Philips Duo; alternatively Reinhard Goebel on a single Eloquence
CD.
Brian Wilson
Concertante of London/Nicholas
Jackson 
