Michael Form, Solos for recorder, Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No. 3 BWV 1006

Almost half a century ago the Japanese publisher Zen-On Music edited Frans Brüggen’s arrangements of “11 movements from the SONATAS AND PARTITAS for violin solo” which have accompanied me for decades. Brüggen’s intention was to provide “studying material of high musical quality” which was not meant to be used for public concert performance. Personally, I have always felt inspired by the following two sentences in Brüggen’s short preface: “No editorial account whatsoever, no explanations, but a very subjective rendering of the text. One expects the ideal recorder student to come up with a better version himself, autograph facsimile edition in hand.” Rarely I have read more motivating lines when it comes to the challenge of transcribing or reconstructing Bach’s music.

Brüggen’s volume contains four movements of the Third Partita omitting the Loure and the two Menuets, since Bach in these two movements uses many double and multiple stops on the violin which are very difficult to translate idiomatically on the recorder. However, after 20 years of experience in this field, I decided to risk a complete concert version of the entire Partita, always aware of the danger of losing much of its original splendour. But the Peludio in particular has become a fascinating playground for an almost infinite number of possibilities that could help to create a convincing recorder version, despite the limitations of my instrument compared to the violin. First of all, there is Bach’s own transcription as a sinfonia to the cantata BWV 29 of 1731, in which the organ takes over the virtuoso violin part being accompanied by a full orchestra:    • Bach - Sinfonia from Cantata BWV 29 |...  
Here, Bach offers interesting solutions to the extensive use of violin bariolage for some passages, which helped me to develop the whole movement into a more woodwind idiomatic piece. In 1991, Jed Wentz recorded a very convincing version by Willem Kroesbergen for solo traverso in D major:    • Partita in D major: Preludio  

But Bach himself returned once more to BWV 1006 and arranged it for lute:    • J. S. Bach - Lute Suite in E Major BW...  

Finally, Sergei Rachmaninoff paraphrased the Preludio, Gavotte and Gigue for piano in 1942:    • Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano - Bach-Rac...  

I really hope you will enjoy my humble contribution to this masterpiece, which has been dressed in so many different sonic garments since its creation.

I would like to thank my recording team Cheluis and Carlos Salmerón for their wonderful teamwork and to Javier Restán of the Fundación Abadía del Sacromonte in Granada, Spain, for receiving us in this magnificent and magic place.

00:07 Preludio
04:06 Loure
07:27 Gavotte en Rondeau
09:52 Menuets
12:04 Bourée
13:29 Gigue