Christopher Czaja Sager brings a distinct point of view to each of Bach’s six Partitas, with variable yet never uninteresting results. He fussily picks at details of voicing and balance between hands in the B-flat’s first two movements and in the final Gigue, but plays the Corrente lively and straight. The Sarabande’s long, lyrical lines are tellingly spun and Sager’s staccato articulation in the da capo of the First Menuet takes on an effective, ghostly hue. (Why so long a pause before the second Menuet?) While Sager’s phrase shaping in the C minor Partita can be overly upholstered and pianistically oriented (especially in the Allemande and the Rondeaux), the music’s grand design can absorb it. Partita No. 3’s dance-like patterns emerge in a straighter, dryer, and more matter-of-fact vein, although Sager’s soft, detaché playing is quite beautiful. By contrast, the huge Fourth Partita’s wide range of moods from one movement to the next inspires some of Sager’s most characterful and rhythmically centered work.
Sager doesn’t swing into the Fifth Partita’s outer movements with Glenn Gould’s rollicking verve, and he lingers between the Allemande’s lilting lines too much for my taste–but he gets back on track for the Corrente. The final Gigue is gentler and more sedate than usual, and quite convincing. You might expect Sager to lavish his ample tonal resources on the large-scale E minor Partita, but no: he scales the opening Toccata’s rhetorical profile down to intimate, even fragile proportions and maintains an introspective cast for the remainder of the work.
Regarding repeats, Sager honors some but ignores others, whereas Angela Hewitt’s more vital and stylishly consistent recordings observe them all. Granted, Sager’s Bach Partitas won’t suit all tastes, but they’re attractive supplementary versions, especially at Hänssler’s budget price tag. The clear, somewhat neutral sonority of the Yamaha CF-III used for Partitas 1, 3, 5, and 6 fascinatingly contrasts with the plangent, fruity tone of the Bösendorfer heard in the Second Partita, and the brighter, singing Steinway gracing No. 4.
