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Track(s) taken from CDA67767

Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV614

composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
circa 1713/7; Weimar; Orgelbüchlein
arranger
Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
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: 3 minutes 30 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)
Arthur Bliss took the chorale prelude Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV614 from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein as the subject of his arrangement. This is a notably restrained, even reverential setting, with discreet octave doubling of bass and upper lines sensitively supporting the melody, though at one point requiring wide skips by the left hand to encompass Bach’s harmony.

from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2010

Arthur Bliss opta, lui, pour un arrangement du prélude-choral Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV614, puisé dans l’Orgelbüchlein de Bach. Il s’y montre remarquable de retenue, voire révérencieux: un discret redoublement à l’octave des lignes grave et supérieure épaule la mélodie, avec sensibilité, encore qu’il faille, à un moment, de larges sauts à la main gauche pour englober l’harmonie bachienne.

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

Arthur Bliss wählte das Choralvorspiel Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV614 aus Bachs Orgelbüchlein zum Thema seines Arrangements, einer deutlich zurückhaltenden, ja ehrfürchtigen Transkription mit diskreter Oktavverdoppelung von Bass und Oberstimmen zur einfühlsamen Unterstützung der Melodie, die jedoch an einer Stelle weite Sprünge in der linken Hand zur Bewältigung von Bachs Harmonie erfordert.

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

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