Overtones: freeing Bach from historical correctness

In the roughly half-century since the revival of Baroque-period instruments began to gather momentum and musicological correctness became a consideration in Baroque performance, no composer has been the subject of more quibbling than Johann Sebastian Bach.

Purists today insist that Bach’s music should be performed only on authentic period instruments, in conformance with distinctively Baroque performance practices: Violins playing Bach should have gut strings and be tuned to a lower pitch than the modern concert standard. Horns should be the old-fashioned waldhorn or hunting horn: coiled metal tubes with a mouthpiece but no valves – like the tonally brilliant Baroque clarino trumpets. Vibrato, in voices and instruments, must be carefully controlled, used sparingly and only for expressive purposes.

It used to be maintained that Bach had probably never played a piano, perhaps never heard of the instrument, though he was entering his teens when it was invented in Italy.

Wanda Landowska, who pioneered the revival of the harpsichord in this century, summed up the feeling, according to legend, when she graciously told a pianist, “You play Bach your way, and I will play him his way.” Since the time of Landowska (who has lately been criticised for romanticising Bach), evidence has turned up that Bach not only knew about pianos but had an acquaintance who manufactured them. Still, there is a widespread feeling that playing Bach on the piano is not quite right – with the exception of a few players such as Glenn Gould.

The simple fact is that Bach’s music can thrive and flourish in any medium that is capable of generating the notes. French pianist Jacques Loussier is one musician who takes this attitude to its limits. He not only plays Bach on the piano, but he also is a jazz pianist and, with his sidemen, bassist Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac and drummer Andre Arpino, he has devoted considerable time and skill to exploring the jazz potential not only of Bach but of Antonio Vivaldi, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie and other classical composers. Their latest effort, on the Telarc label, is a skilled, loving and constantly inventive treatment of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” music both admirable and lovable, ingeniously inventive and engagingly melodious. The Jacques Loussier Trio approaches the music with rhythmic and harmonic freedom tempered by deep respect and profound musical instincts.