Washington Classical Review

Benjamin Alard performed a harpsichord recital for Capriccio Baroque Thursday night. Photo: Bernard Martinez

Johann Sebastian Bach never visited Italy, but transcribing Italian solo concerti for harpsichord helped him incorporate the popular Italian style into his music. A lesser composer might have simply filled in the harmony a bit and called it a day, but Bach’s transcriptions both celebrate and transform the material.

On Thursday night, Capriccio Baroque presented the French harpsichordist Benjamin Alard at Live! At 10th and G in a program focusing on those concerto transcriptions. 

Alard is recording the complete keyboard works of Bach, with volume 12 of a projected 17 coming out later this year; he knows these concerti well, having recorded them way back in volume 4. In each of the four transcriptions Alard played Thursday, he showcased the flair of their sources and Bach’s ingenuity in adapting them to the keyboard.

In the Concerto in D minor, BWV 974, which transcribes an oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello, Bach mostly lets the solo part shine, with relatively simple accompaniment. Alard made the harpsichord sing with the oboe’s appealing melodies — as you might imagine, Bach only picked top-flight concerti to transcribe — and made his left hand into an orchestra, using the buff stop during the slow movement for a delectable pizzicato-like sound to contrast with the legato melody.

The other three transcriptions all came from violin concerti by Antonio Vivaldi, and in these, Bach made the music as virtuosic for the harpsichordist as Vivaldi’s concerti are for the violinist. Alard kept the textures clear, the solo line remaining prominent even with the increased complexity beneath; his fingers ran up, down, and around the keyboard with remarkable steadiness no matter the technical demands, limning the structure of the music and providing thrills at once.

The imitative counterpoint of the first movement of the Concerto in F major, BWV 978, sounded particularly merry, while the gigue rhythm of the finale of the Concerto in G minor, BWV 975, skipped infectiously along. In the slow movement of the G minor, Alard added pathos to the keening melody by taking liberties with rhythm as an instrumental soloist would, while the left hand kept even time.

Alard wisely spelled the concerti with Bach works in other forms. The concert opened with a real dazzler, the Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 894, dense with keyboard-spanning runs and chromatic thickets that posed little difficulty for Alard. The prelude began with a brooding theme that blossomed into a profusion of dramatic writing, with Alard in full control; the fugue similarly gathered an infectious momentum.

Alard made the opening of the Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 944, sound like waves lapping at a shore, and he spun out the absurdly long fugue subject with grace that disguised its ungainliness. Two chorale preludes—which may not have been written by Bach but are quite good either way—provided a lyrical interlude: “Jesu, meine Freunde” walking in and around the famous melody, and “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” a gentle lullaby in Alard’s performance.

The program also featured a true novelty: the DC premiere of the Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1178, one of two pieces written early in Bach’s career but declared authentic Bach just last year. Sadly, it’s no missing masterpiece, repetitive and not particularly inventive, despite Alard’s best efforts to vary tone and volume to liven it up.

Alard saved the best transcription for last: the Concerto in C major, BWV 976. Here Bach unleashed the full force of his invention, with Vivaldi’s memorable melody in the first movement constantly lapped at by Bach’s accompaniment. Alard took a flexible approach in the Largo, making the melody noble and affecting, and excelled in the finale, with Vivaldi’s sturdy theme complemented by Bachian runs up and down the keyboard.

After sustained applause, Alard gave the most appropriate possible encore: The first movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto, BWV 971, as brilliant as BWV 976 but fully original Bach. It would have been a pity not to hear a taste of Bach’s efforts in the Italian style after all those concerto transcriptions. Given the quality of Alard’s playing, however, there was little danger of an encore not being requested.

Capriccio Baroque presents another program with Benjamin Alard, “Köthen: The Happy Years” (featuring the other recently authenticated Bach work), at Live! At 10th and G on Saturday, May 2. capricciobaroque.org