Bach, Johann Sebastian

Musikalisches Opfer

Label: Edition Rz Country: Germany

"Falling into the real oddity category is this 1949 recording of Bach's Musical Offering, with conductor Hermann Scherchen leading soloists of the Berlin Radio Symphony in an arrangement written by Swiss organist Roger Vuataz. The Musical Offering is, like the Art of Fugue, a semi-conceptual work, with instrumentation, and even the ordering of sections, only partly specified; it consists of a series of contrapuntal treatments of a theme given to Bach by King Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The work certainly appealed to Scherchen, who spoke of "realizations" rather than interpretations of works and would, one suspects, have been pleased by the current trend toward substantial recastings of compositions. Scherchen's Bach performances in general were unique: his was neither the Romantic Bach of old, nor a harbinger of the incipient historical performance movement. He treated Bach as an intellectual, rather dry modernist, and since the Vuataz arrangement of the Musical Offering takes a similar approach, the recording hangs together.

Vuataz arranges the work for oboe, violin, English horn, viola, cello, and bassoon. Different instruments are used in each movement, with the winds predominating, until all the forces come together for the six-part ricercar at the end. The shifts in timbre are a little distracting just because one has never heard anything quite like them before, but really they're no more extreme than a shift in registration on the organ. The texture clarifies Bach's complex polyphony.

One noteworthy aspect of this release is the expertly remastered 1949 sound, which shows just how good recorded sound got at the end of the 78 rpm era. There isn't a trace of hiss. This is not a pick for those looking for a first Musical Offering, but those fascinated by this major product of Bach's intellect, and interested in its resonances through history, should investigate this disc."-James Manheim, All Music