Frank Almond and friends delivered a dose of thoroughly modern Bach at the Wisconsin Conservatory Monday night. And as Bach champions know, very little was lost in translation. For this program, Almond lead a trio playing Dmitri Sitkovetsky’s transcription of the “Goldberg” Variations. And pianist Michael Mizrahi offered a prelude by playing one of the composer’s French Suites.
In fact, it’s interesting to think about the sound of 18th- vs. 21st-century Bach. Playing the Conservatory’s concert grand, Mizrahi’s Bach is meaty and bold. The attack on the modern piano helps the player create charged rhythms, and Mizrahi took full advantage of it in up tempo movements.
The absence of percussive attack is the primary loss in Sitkovetsky’s string arrangement of the “Goldberg” Variations, originally written for keyboard. The only time it was missed Monday night was in the opening aria theme. Almond played it with grace, but I missed the pluck and ping of the ornamentation that a keyboard affords. From there, however, the trio (violinist Almond, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Edward Arron) made one forget that this was an “adapted” work. The independence of the three instruments – and their contrasting sonorities – made Bach’s complex counterpoint crystal clear. Sitkovetsky’s arrangement of the “Goldbergs” for string orchestra (heard in his own recording) is a bit bloodless, like an attempt to create pretty background music. But Almond, Armbrust and Arron played the trio arrangement with muscle and fire. And precision. These are musicians that listen closely to each other, and are able to handle technical challenges like the trills of the 28th variation, while still finding the grace and unity in the striking chromatic passages of the 25th.
Almond and friends will repeat the concert Tuesday at the Conservatory.
