Phantasm - J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Consort – II - MusicWeb International [DM]

This is the second volume of Bach arranged for viol consort by Phantasm. This time the music is selected exclusively from the Well-Tempered Clavier where the first CD mixed in music from the Musical Offering and other sources. Having enjoyed the first volume immensely, I delved into this new collection with great enthusiasm. Happily, all the many qualities that made Volume 1 such an outstanding release are here in abundance too.

Whereas the first volume felt more about excitedly delving into the potential for this kind of arrangement of Bach’s music, this time it seems more about digging deeper into the individual character of each prelude or fugue. There is not the slightest risk of this feeling like an endless procession of fugues. If one of the risks of extended listening to the 48 can be ‘fugue fatigue’, then there is little chance of that.

I have a soft spot for recordings that sound like the performers were enjoying themselves and that sense beams from this recording. The format of the viol consort makes for conversational music making and that quality makes Bach’s counterpoint come alive in a special way. All of the music on this recording exemplifies this, but try the B-flat fugue from Book Two for a strikingly good example. I had always thought of this fugue in exclusively keyboard terms but Phantasm take it somewhere else. It is much like listening in on a group of friends enjoying dinner together round a table.

In his notes, Dreyfus also speaks of liberating all manner of associations with the wider Bach canon that might not be so obvious when the 48 is played at the keyboard. I think this point is audible throughout. I found my head full of Brandenburg concertos, cantatas, passions, the cello suites and the violin sonatas and partitas. These are not direct allusions, but Phantasm time again point up family relationships.

It helps that that the viol possesses a unique resemblance to the human voice. Bach’s melodies really sing in way that even the greatest keyboard master cannot hope to match. The C-sharp minor fugue from Book One is a good example. The gently lamenting voices gradually pile up as if reaching for the light. In my imagination, I was at the deposition from the cross and the voices were the sorrowful ones of the women receiving the body for burial.

Despite a change of recording venue, Linn’s production team excel themselves once more.

I concluded my review of Volume 1 of the Well-Tempered Consort by saying that if I had heard it in 2020, it would have been one of my albums of the year. I can’t yet say what 2021 has in store but if I hear a better disc then it will have been a vintage year.