Johann Sebastian Bach - Lute Suites (Franz Halász)

Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

• (01) Suite in G minor, BWV 995
• (07) Suite (Partita) in C minor, BWV 997 (arr. Ansgar Krause)
• (11) Suite (Partita) in E major, BWV 1006 (arr. Ansgar Krause)
• (17) Suite in E minor, BWV 996

Franz Halász, guitar
Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/performers/halasz-franz/bach-the-lute-suites

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Review

Franz Halász does something interesting here. Well, of course he does – you’ve heard his Henze, Berio and Takemitsu … not to mention his Piazzolla, Mompou and, yes, his Bach (the three Solo Violin Sonatas).

He is one of those guitarists – others are Sharon Isbin, definitely Tilman Hoppstock, who provided the booklet notes – who successfully combine historically informed practice with modern guitar technique to produce something original. But Halász’s lavish ornamentation – his trills, turns, mordents, divisions, appoggiaturas, arpeggiation, notes inégales and all the rest – nearly amount to recomposition. Even campanella effects, changes in tone colour and that kind of almost capricious rubato that Segovia was famous for (‘it may not be of any structural importance, but let’s just stop here to savour this note for its own sake’) are ornaments of the sort you might almost equate with the burr and shavings left by a burin’s incisions in metal, were they not themselves so precisely weighted to reveal the import of a phrase or a progression. The C minor and E major Suites are arranged by Ansgar Krause, the other two by Halász. All are performed in their original keys. The preludes – especially that of the E minor Suite – are suitably improvisatory, declamatory and dramatic; the faster dances are ecstatic, the slower ones intensely meditative.

Only Hoppstock is as prodigious an embellisher. But he is less demonstrative, even circumspect. Halász is more individualistic, extrovert. This is not a criticism of either; it is merely a question of taste. The discerning listener will love both.

-- William Yeoman, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Aug/Bach_lute_BIS2285.htm
https://theclassicreview.com/album-reviews/review-bach-the-lute-suites-franz-halasz-guitar/
https://www.allmusic.com/album/js-bach-the-lute-suites-mw0003274986

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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Franz Halász (born 1964) is an American-born German guitarist. Since winning first prizes at the Andres Segovia Competition and the Seto Ohashi Competion in 1993, Halász has led an impressive career. A guest performer at major festivals and events, he also shared the stage with well known artists such as Patrick Gallois, Ingolf Turban,Wen-Sinn Yang and Alban Gerhard. Halász was for many years a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg and led there one of the most successful guitar classes in Europe. His many CD's for BIS include the complete guitar music by Joaquin Turina and Toru Takemitsu.
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Halasz-Franz.htm
http://www.franzhalasz.de/

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