Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Carlos Mena, Emma Kirkby :: Bach: De Occulta Philosophia

This disc is far less interesting than it looks. Though Bach is widely characterized as a workaday genius, musicologists claim to identify all sorts of numerological symbolism in his music, adding up to the spelling of his late wife's name in the famous Chaccone movement of the Partita in D minor (BWV 1004) for unaccompanied violin. That's what begins the disc in a transcription (the genesis of which is unclear) for lute and two voices singing the lament "Christ lag in Todesbanden." The counterpoint is often fascinating. But the rest of the disc is mere lute transcriptions of the aforementioned partita and Sonata in G minor (BWV 1001). Though it's engaging to hear the succession of transcription choices Moreno has made, the ultimate result isn't resourceful. While Moreno realizes vertical counterpoint that Bach only implies, there's no forward momentum that's either implied or illusory. It's as if Bach keeps getting distracted. -- David Patrick Stearns