Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin work rather well on the guitar or lute, as Paul Galbraith’s recent guitar versions for Delos have demonstrated. The advantages include easy chord playing, with a consequent clarification of some of Bach’s implied harmonies (especially if you fill them out a little here and there), greater contrapuntal (or linear) clarity in the fugues, and a sharper rhythmic attack. On the other hand, the violin has two huge advantages over the lute or guitar: sustaining power and dynamic range. These six works contain a lot of slow music, as well as some very florid melodies that no plucked instrument sustains with any degree of comfort, and that includes the amazing D minor Chaconne, a movement that cries out for the sustained intensity and dynamic gradations that only the violin offers. But if you want to hear this music played this way, then Hopkinson Smith’s gotta be your guy. I frankly prefer the succulent, rich, and liquid sounds he draws from his 11-course lute to Galbraith’s guitar, and my only reservation concerns the recorded sound, which as usual in guitar or lute solos, picks up too much extraneous performance noise: fingers sliding over strings, body parts rubbing against each other, gasping and groaning–that sort of thing. Then again, solo violin recordings don’t often do much better. All in all, of its type, this is a very fine effort. Oh yeah, someone should tell Hopkinson Smith to smile. He’s on the cover, and he looks miserable. [5/16/2000]
