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Track(s) taken from CDA67767

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV645

composer
circa 1748/9; Schübler Chorale No 1; arrangement of Cantata 140 movement 4
arranger
commissioned by Harriet Cohen and first published by Oxford University Press in A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen; first performed at the Queen's Hall on 17 October 1932

Jonathan Plowright (piano)
Recording details: September 2008
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Jeremy Hayes
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: September 2010
Total duration: 4 minutes 58 seconds

Cover artwork: Front illustration. Donya Claire James (b?)
 

Reviews

‘Jonathan Plowright plays everything with calm, unforced assurance, nicely balancing Bach style and 1930s period manners, and making light of all the left-hand skips needed to suggest Bach's organ pedal parts. An immaculate recording and Calum MacDonald's detailed notes enhance the disc's appeal’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Every so often a CD comes along that I simply can't stop playing. Here's one such example … glorious interpretations by Jonathan Plowright’ (The Observer)

‘There are some gems here … this is an invaluable addition to Hyperion's Bach Piano Transcriptions series and Plowright has done us an enormous service in resurrecting these transcriptions and in rendering them so eloquently’ (International Record Review)
The Bach Book for Harriet Cohen, arranged alphabetically by composer, opens with Sir Granville Bantock’s version of the chorale prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV645 (originally based on a chorus from Cantata No 140). The wide left-hand leaps in which Bantock indulges on the first appearance of the chorale tune, where the bottom note is sounded as a grace-note before the rest of the harmony, were a feature which especially excited Ronald Stevenson’s derision, and several of the other contributors are guilty of this rather makeshift stratagem. Stevenson compared the Bantock, to its detriment, with Busoni’s famous treatment of the same piece. Later appearances are in octaves, however, while a brief episode in pastoral sixths and a sensitive underpinning of the figuration in thirds are among the felicities of the setting. Bantock made a version of this arrangement for small orchestra in 1945.

from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2010

Le Bach Book for Harriet Cohen, classé alphabétiquement par compositeur, s’ouvre sur la version de Sir Granville Bantock du prélude-choral Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV645 (basé à l’origine sur un chœur de la Cantate no 140). Les larges sauts à la main gauche marquant l’apparition de la mélodie du choral, où la note inférieure est comme une note d’agrément avant le reste de l’harmonie, excitèrent particulièrement la dérision de Ronald Stevenson, d’autant que Bantock ne fut pas le seul contributeur à utiliser ce stratagème de fortune. Quand Stevenson compara cette version avec le célèbre arrangement de Busoni, ce fut au désavantage de Bantock. Les apparitions ultérieures du choral sont toutefois en octaves, cependant qu’un bref épisode en sixtes pastorales et un sensible soutien de la figuration en tierces comptent parmi les tours heureux de cette version que Bantock arrangera, en 1945, pour petit orchestre.

extrait des notes rédigées par Calum MacDonald © 2010
Français: Hypérion

Der alphabetisch nach Komponisten geordnete Bach Book for Harriet Cohen beginnt mit Sir Granville Bantocks Version des Chorals Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV645 (ursprünglich auf Grundlage eines Chors aus der Kantate Nr. 140). Die weiten Sprünge in der linken Hand, mit denen Bantock im ersten Erscheinen der Choralmelodie schwelgt, wo der Grundton als Verzierung vor dem übrigen Akkord erklingt, war besondere Zielscheibe des Spotts in Ronald Stevensons zitiertem Brief, und mehrere andere Beiträge machen sich ebenfalls dieses recht aus der Not geborenen Kunstgriffs schuldig. Stevenson verglich Bantocks Beitrag zu dessen Nachteil mit Busonis berühmter Bearbeitung desselben Stücks. Spätere Wiederholungen stehen in Oktaven, doch eine kurze Episode in pastoralen Sexten und ein einfühlsamer Unterbau der Figuration in Terzen zählen zu den geglückten Partien der Bearbeitung, die Bantock 1945 für ein kleines Orchester umschrieb.

aus dem Begleittext von Calum MacDonald © 2010
Deutsch: Henning Weber

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