by Ferruccio Busoni, Sergei Rachmaninov, Myra Hess and Wilhelm Kempf
Bernd Glemser, piano
Since the 19th century, piano arrangements of Bach’s works have almost
become an independent genre. Primarily responsible for this have been
musical personalities with many talents: pianists with a considerable oeuvre
of compositions or – in the case of Sergei Rachmaninoff – piano virtuosos
who have primarily been perceived by later generations as composers. But
transcriptions always reveal something about their author’s personal relationship
to J.S. Bach. On his new CD, Bernd Glemser presents not only some of the most
famous Bach arrangements by Ferruccio Busoni (the recording begins with the
Chaconne in D Minor, which can practically be called a standard work of the
virtuoso piano repertoire), but also seldom heard pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff,
Myra Hess and Wilhelm Kempff.
Recognizing Music through its
Transformation
On the Transcription of Bach’s Music
for the Piano
In the year 1907 Ferruccio Busoni published
his bold essay entitled “Sketch of a New
Aesthetic of Music”. The composer and pianist
shared “a few thoughts” in a rather
unsystematic manner as “the notes of a musician”
in this classic work of modern music
aestheticism. Among the many interesting
topics touched upon in Busonis programmatic
essay is the fact that he did not adhere to the
perspective held by the Cult of the Genius in
the 19th century: “Man cannot create, only
manipulate that which he finds pre-existent
on earth.” The artist, for Busoni, is not to be
considered a creator of worlds similar to God,
but rather an honest worker who must react
sensibly and creatively to the malleable materials
available to him.
T his thought, namely, as it reads in the bible
that there is “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes
1:9), was both sobering and revolutionary
for Busoni’s era, an era that had been
deeply influenced by the Cult of the Genius
and the spirit of progress. Surprisingly, Busoni
developed this concept while working on
a rather technical musical question, namely
as to the sense and value of adapting music.
In the second edition of his Sketch of a New
Aesthetic of Music, Busoni quoted a short text
which he had previously published in the program
to one of his concerts.
“In order to decisively raise the esteem of
the reader for the artistic worth of an ‘adaptation’
it is only necessary to refer to Johann
Sebastian Bach. He was one of the most prodigious
adapters of both his own and others’
music, namely as an organist. It was from him
that I recognized the truth that a good, great,
universal music remains music regardless
of the means through which it resounds. But
also another truth: that various means have
their own individual language in which they
announce their contents with an ever new interpretation.”
The point is that one’s own adaptation of
a piece of music, or that of another, is not
to be seen as something alienated from the
original, rather the transformations illuminate
the essential heart of the music itself. In this
light, one should view the numerous
arrangements that Busoni completed, particularly
those based on the work of Bach. The range
of such inclinations to others’ music within the
so-called Bach-Busoni-Edition stretches from
interpretive editions of piano pieces, to the
adaptation of violin and organ works for the
piano, to completely free “compositions and
adaptations”. All of these finely differentiated
methods of adapting the creation of another
artist can be studied in Busoni’s short adaptation
of the Chaconne in D-minor from Partita
No. 2 for the violin solo BWV 1004: In his version,
which he publicly performed during his
second American tour in 1893, he wrests a
solid and immensely virtuoso piano movement
from the delicate voice of a single violin – an
accomplishment in adaptation that deserves
to be considered one of the very best of its
kind.
The adaptations by Busoni that are based
on pieces for the organ are of another kind;
in this case emphasis was laid on integrating
the pedal voice into a performable measure
for two hands. Between 1907 and 1909, Busoni
wrote a total of ten choral preludes, whereby
he singled out particularly impressive and expressive
movements that went on to become
popular through further adaptations. “Awake,
the Voice Calls” BWV 645 was originally composed
for Cantata BWV 140 of the same title,
and was later integrated into the small collection
of works known as “The Schuebler
Hymns” by Bach himself as the introductory
piece. Later adaptations lead one to assume
that Bach himself considered it a particularly
successful piece: the foundation of the movement
is a catchy aria-melody that develops
majestically and fully autonomously before the
choral is incorporated. “Now Comes the Heathen’s
Savior” BWV 659 and “I Call to You, Lord
Jesus Christ” BWV 639 are harmonically complex
movements that Busoni interpreted in a
virtually meditative manner with his phrasing,
anticipation and dynamic sampling, whereas
“Now Rejoice, Christian Fold” BWV 734 is presented
as a playful allegro movement on the
piano.
Busoni had a special affinity for Bach’s
organ fantasies which he, again in his article
Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, and in
contrast to the fugues attested to a “strong
streak of pastoral (the architectonic antipode),
of suggestions that one could describe
with ‘man and music’.” He did not however
exclude the fugues from his adaptations; as
early as 1888, and thus his very first Bachadaptation,
he completed his version of Prelude
and Fugue D Major BWV 532; two years
later he completed an adaptation of Prelude
and Fugue E-flat Major BWV 552, a work that
is accorded particularly meaning because it
provides the framing sections of the third part
of the Piano-practice. None other than Arnold
Schoenberg composed an adaptation of this
exceptional piece 28 years later scored for a
large orchestra.
Busoni’s adaptation experienced widespread
success. In the year 1933 Sergey
Rachmaninov reclaimed three movements
from Partita Nr. 3 in E Major for a solo violin
BWV 1006 for the piano; it was however virtually
a new adaptive composition because
Rachmaninov – just as Busoni in the case of
Chaconne – expanded the single voice of the
violin to a full piano movement. The German
pianist Wilhelm Kempff also completed a series
of transcriptions; the Siciliano from the
Flute Sonata E-flat Major BWV 1031 enjoys
special significance because it is composed in
the same key as his most popular and enduring
work, his Piano Sonata in G-minor op. 47.
In the case of the choral “Jesus Remains my
Friend” from the cantata “Heart and Mouth
and Deed and Life” BWV 147 it was ultimately
the piano transcription by the British pianist
Dame Myra Hess that made this piece, with
it wonderful floating melody, popular around
the world. Successful adaptations such as
these demonstrate that the contribution of the
adaptor cannot be underestimated, and it is
often precisely these artists that bring muchdeserved
attention to works long neglected.
Michael Bastian Weiß
translation: Maurice Sprague