Bach on the guitar is not new, with guitar performances of the Chaconne from the
Partita No. 2 for solo violin, BWV 1004, dating back to the transcription of
Andres Segovia, but this one by hot guitarist
Thibault Cauvin (it landed on classical best-seller charts in early 2023) is of a different sort. The title
Bach might lead one to expect a varied recital, but in fact, there are just two
Bach works included, both of the composer's most extreme kind.
Cauvin makes a dramatic impression right off with the
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, a work that one might not think would be amenable to guitar transcription. He plays his own adaptations; for the
Partita No. 2 for solo violin, he is perhaps playing directly from the violin score.
Cauvin's work is enhanced by the sound, recorded at the small medieval Church of Bourg-au-Bost, a place with personal significance for the guitarist. Even if one usually finds church performances of music for plucked stringed instruments inappropriately booming, give this one a try: it manages to be reverberant and intimate at the same time. It all comes together in the
Partita No. 2 for solo violin, a work where the technical challenge of rendering polyphony on a violin is part and parcel of the effect.
Cauvin's intensity reproduces this effect on an instrument where there is no technical challenge. The entr'acte, consisting of three works by
Cauvin's brother
Jordan that are based on
Bach Preludes, is likewise unorthodox. This is far from an everyday
Bach transcription recital, and it is likely to strengthen the trajectory of this rising guitar star's career. ~ James Manheim
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