Bach left us a few isolated pieces and suites for the lute, predecessor of the guitar, but guitarists have always found the rest of his...

Bach left us a few isolated pieces and suites for the lute, predecessor of the guitar, but guitarists have always found the rest of his music as amenable to adaptation as every other musician. Luigi Attademo recorded all of Bach’s lute music a decade ago on a 2CD Brilliant Classics album (94294) which attracted glowing reviews in the international press for the combined rigor and imagination of his playing. On this new recording he turns to pieces originally conceived for cello (the Preludio of the First Cello Suite), violin (the Chaconne from the D minor Partita), harpsichord (the Aria from the Goldberg Variations), and flute (the Siciliano from the E-flat major Sonata) which have gained iconic status in the three centuries since their composition for their surface simplicity and expressive depth.

The recital includes several stimulating pairs: the Aria from the Goldbergs with the Air from the Third Orchestral Suite; Gavottes from the Sixth Cello Suite and E major Violin Partita; the Siciliano from the G minor solo sonata for violin preceding the more famous flute example. These pairs only serve to underline the variety of Bach’s response to a particular genre. Grandest and most superficially complex of the works here, the famous D minor Toccata and Fugue proves highly idiomatic on the guitar, relating the virtuosic and extrovert writing back to what we now think must be a lost violin original for the piece (possibly not even by Bach) rather than the form for organ which is now universally known. Attademo contributes a personal introduction to the album which explains his choice of repertoire and interpretative approach, taking inspiration from great Bach players of the past such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Dinu Lipatti.