Saturday 31 October 2015

Alina Ibragimova in Bach Concertos

Nearly 70 minutes of five Bach violin concertos on one CD is quite a treat, especially when the violinist in Alina Ibragimova, one of today's very finest violinists. Three of the concertos are transcriptions or arrangements or re-arrangements, and nothing wrong with that; Johann Sebastian himself was a dab hand at arrangements for different instruments, which is why the “authentic” fashion is somewhat perplexing with its diktats over no vibrato, gut strings from black cats but not from white, bow hair from horses but not from unicorns, etc. If Bach was not fussed about exact sounds and timbres, why are we (or some of us)? Miss Ibragimova does her best here to sound like a 300 year old violinist; fortunately, she is so good – unlike most “authentic” instrumentalists – that it does not matter too much except, perhaps, in the slow movements where a little warming vibrato would have enhanced the sound. James Ehnes, in his recent recording of Vivaldi's more-or-less contemporaneous Four Seasons, shows that a modern violin played “properly” can fit perfectly well with the music of the eighteenth century.

James Ehnes had another advantage; his accompaniment of a small string band, with a cello continuo and no conductor, allowed the music to flow agreeably. I criticised Jonathan Cohen and his Arcangelo group recently for being over-interventionist, and opined that Vilde Frang's Mozart would have benefited from just a small orchestra, without conductor. In this new CD, the problem for me is the continuo, which consists of plucking harpsichords and lutes that constantly disrupt the flow of the music, particularly in Bach's lovely slow movements. Nothing wrong with harpsichords and lutes, of course, as long as they are relegated to the distant background to just fill in the harmonies. The slow movement of the G minor concerto ends up almost as a duet for violin and lute, and this cannot be right. “Was ist das?” Bach might well have asked, irritably. The lovely ostinato string playing in the slow movements of both the A minor and E major concertos is similarly disrupted by determined continuo plucking. Lucky James Ehnes did not have to fight off wild continuo players.

However, thanks to Johann Sebastian Bach and Alina Ibragimova, the day is saved. Some of the violin writing is pretty tough going (for example, in the faster movements of the D minor concerto) but Alina dazzles us all – and sees off both harpsichord and lute.


No comments: