Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonate
Fantaisie chromatique, BWV 903
Fantaisie, BWV 922
Prélude & Allegro, BWV 998
Partita, BWV 1013

Raaf Hekkema, saxophone

Après un précédent album consacré aux Partitas, Raaf Hekkema nous propose cette fois des arrangements de pièces originellement pour violon, clavecin ou flûte. Pour ouvrir le programme, le saxophoniste a inventé une Sonate en regroupant six mouvements issus de trois sonates pour violon. Il s’en tire joliment faisant preuve d’une dextérité incroyable notamment dans l’Allegro assai BWV 1005/4 impressionnant de virtuosité. Néanmoins certains aigus peuvent s’y faire un peu criards dans les traits acrobatiques. Dans les pièces originellement pour clavecin, l’écriture fluide et arpégée des œuvres se prête bien à un arrangement pour instrument monodique. S’il est difficile de reproduire la texture des accords qu’elles contiennent ici et là, on apprécie la virtuosité se déployant dans chacune d’entre elles mettant à rude épreuve le saxophoniste. Mais là encore le musicien semble à la peine dans certains aigus poussifs et des articulations manquant parfois de clarté. Dans la majorité des cas on admire sa dextérité comme par exemple dans l’impressionnante Fantaisie BWV 922 à la technique éprouvante. Au final on reste partagé entre l’originalité attrayante d’un tel travail sur les œuvres de Bach et les écueils techniques, voire l’appauvrissement musical des œuvres choisies une fois arrangées. Un album qui nous laisse un peu sur notre faim. (Laurent Mineau)

The pandemic in 2020-21 brought little to dispel the gloom among performing musicians. But these months also proved to be a time of reflection and artistic rebirth for many, the arts became a breeding ground for spiritual offspring, and so it proved for me; the genesis of the work you can hear on this album. Finally, there was plenty of time to spend many hours every day working on the project against a background of calm, which made Bach's music all the more comforting! The prime cut with which I open this album is the Sonata I have assembled from Bach's three sonatas for solo violin. Even though a sonata in six movements may go against musical tradition, I feel it is a very satisfactory solution from a musical perspective. Soon after this, I cast my greedy eye over the earlier works for organ and harpsichord. The Chromatic Fantasia symbolises early Bach for me; a composer who was heavily influenced by the fantastical style of his idol and predecessor Dieterich Buxtehude. I made a pilgrimage to my own hero of early music, Ton Koopman. His enthusiasm for my arrangements grew as our meeting progressed. I am deeply grateful to him for his generous assistance. The Fantasia BWV 922 seemed to be a bigger task altogether. I was keen to let my own creative juices flow in order to adapt the texture in such a way that I could still do the greatest justice to the music's harmonic complexity and sweeping argument. Before this, however, I had already set about arranging Bach's most famous organ work, the Toccata and Fugue. Generally, I would describe it as a good idea to avoid fugues for what I have in mind, but this one was relatively straightforward for me. My arrangement of the Partita BWV 1013 is perhaps the simplest of all my Bach transcriptions. All I had to do was transpose this into a key I considered to be better suited to my instrument. I play it on a 1924 curved Buescher soprano saxophone with a matching Buescher mouthpiece. Using historical saxophones may result in a lighter and more transparent sound. The same argument also applies to the Prelude and Allegro from BWV 998, which I recorded on a straight Buescher alto saxophone made in 1927.