Natalya Pasichnyk & Calmus Ensemble: J. S. Bach: Rethinking the Well-Tempered Clavier
Navona Records

Working with the Germany-based vocal group Calmus Ensemble, Swedish-Ukrainian pianist Natalya Pasichnyk has created something truly special with this bold reimagining of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. Before delving into exactly what's she's done, a few words about the work itself are in order. The composer published its twenty-four pairs of preludes and fugues in a 1722 volume and then a second book of similar kind approximately two decades later. Ostensibly designed to be pedagogical exercises for advanced students that would challenge the performer with material exploring chords, scales, and arpeggios in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys, The Well-Tempered Clavier is considered one of the seminal works of the Baroque era. While book one's forty-eight components are almost all short, they cumulatively amount to about two hours of music, a considerable total for the individual soloist.

The compound adjective in the title refers to the deployment of a tuning system that works equally satisfactorily in all keys; in using the term clavier, Bach was intimating that the material could be performed on different keyboard types, including organ, harpsichord, and clavichord (piano was not yet known in Germany when the first volume was published). Much scholarly discussion has centred on the tuning aspect, but the immediacy with which the music registers ultimately pushes theoretical questions into the background. Three centuries removed from its creation, the work is still tackled today, obviously, yet while recordings of it by Glenn Gould, András Schiff, Angela Hewitt, and others can be had, Pasichnyk's stands apart for the new dimension she's brought to it.

For her project, she shifted the focus from pedagogy to faith and was inspired to do so by Ukrainian-born musicologist Boleslaw Javorsky's (1877-1942) idea that The Well-Tempered Clavier—sometimes referred to as “the pianist's Bible”—is a musical interpretation of Biblical images and plots; the composer's statement that the “final aim and reason of all music should be none other than God's glory and the recreation of the spirit” would seem to support such an interpretation. Using it as a springboard, Pasichnyk extracted motives from his chorales, cantatas, oratorios, and other vocal music to construct a seamlessly woven, fully integrated, and texturally rich tapestry of voices and piano. Having given thoughtful consideration to sequencing (rather than chronologically advancing from BMW 846 to 869, her customized version begins with 849 and follows it with 846, 862, 866, and so on), the work now invites the listener to experience it as an epic narrative that progresses from birth to ascension rather than as a two-volume set of exercises. Pasichnyk invites us to enter into Bach's spiritual universe and revel in the abundance of glories that awaits.

What makes the project especially fascinating is that the recording presents two versions, one featuring the pianist with Calmus Ensemble and the other Pasichnyk alone. Her virtuosic essaying of the material is in places breathtaking (see her high-velocity intro to the B-Flat Major prelude or solo piano treatment of the F Major and D Major preludes); as riveting are passages where she plays with lyrical repose (“Fugue in B Minor”). That Calmus Ensemble comprises five singers—Elisabeth Mücksch (soprano), Maria Kalmbach (alto), Friedrich Bracks (tenor), Jonathan Saretz (baritone), and Michael Gernert (bass)—means that there is vocal splendour and contrast but also clarity; identifying the singers at any given time is also fairly easy to do. Together the five vocalists generate a dense blend; individually, the glorious instrument that each possesses is showcased repeatedly. The parts they sing harmonically align to the solo piano writing with vocal melodies complementing the melodic progressions in the original.

The vocal version begins with the ensemble intoning solemnly and Pasichnyk playing eloquently in the “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor”; the pace picks up when the “Fugue in C-Sharp Minor” finds the singers engaging in soaring counterpoint and the pianist driving the performance aggressively. The shift to C Major for the “Annunciation and Birth” prelude casts an illuminating ray of sunlight on the music, and the forty-five parts that follow offer an array of memorable moments, be it the dignified solemnity of the “Fugue in F Minor,” the joyful affirmation of the “Fugue in G Major,” the plaintive questioning in the “Prelude in F-Sharp Major,” or the tender lament of the “Prelude in E Minor.”

February 2024