Daniel Lippel: Aufs Lautenwerk
New Focus Recordings / MicroFest Records

What a pleasure it is to hear Daniel Lippel perform these lute-harpsichord works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) on classical guitar, with the instrument refretted in Baroque well temperament. Lippel performs as a member of ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), but he's one of many musicians in the ensemble, and consequently his voice is less prominent when part of a dense tapestry. In stark contrast, Aufs Lautenwerk is Lippel alone, and as such one comes away from the album newly reminded of his extraordinary gifts as a guitarist and interpreter. Mention must be made too of John Schneider, whose moveable fret Walter Vogt guitar Lippel plays on the recording. The instrument's balanced sustain allows the pitch combinations in the Kirnberger tuning to resonate vividly.

Three Bach works are performed in their original keys in Kirnberger III temperament. A composer who lived with the Bach family for more than a year while studying with Johann Sebastian, Johann Kirnberger (1721-1783) developed a tuning system that enabled the musician to perform in all twelve keys whilst also preserving the unique affect of each as framed by the interval characteristics of their core harmonic zones (today's equal temperament, by comparison, divides the octave into a dozen semitones of equal size). On the moveable fret guitar created by the German luthier Vogt, each sliding fret is positioned in accordance with a keyboard temperament designed by Kirnberger.

Notes by Lippel and Schneider delve into the technical nuances of the project, some of which will be better appreciated by guitarists or those conversant with tuning systems. Even if one has no familiarity with music theory, the listening experience suffers little when the lilting beauty of Bach's writing enables his music to connect with any attentive listener, not just guitarists. Their texts also include fascinating tidbits, Lippel noting, for example, that a piece of felt was placed under the guitar's bass strings for the “Bourée” in the opening suite to replicate a harpsichord's buff stop.

His virtuosity is evident throughout but always deployed in service to the material, and ornamentation is present but circumspectly woven into the playing. Dexterity and precision are needed to perform these pieces, and Lippel possesses both. With articulation, counterpoint, and tempo pitched at such a high level, the three pieces flow with a natural grace, so much it's easy to forget they were written at and for the keyboard rather than classical guitar. While he's respectful he's not overly reverential; lightness and freedom, in other words, permeate these performances.

Composed between 1708 and 1717, the opening Suite in E-minor BWV 996 is structured as a Baroque dance suite, with a prelude followed by a short fugue and then five movements in standard dance suite order. Lippel's playing is distinguished by precise intonation and elegant phrasing, qualities that make listening to these settings all the more satisfying, and the stateliness of the slower “Sarabande” registers as strongly as the faster “Bourée” and “Gigue.”

When the Sonata in Cm BWV 997 (1738-1741) is performed in its original key of C minor, sonorities emerge that resonate less than when the material's played in A minor, the key typically used by a guitarist today. Whereas the opening piece's prelude and fugue are coupled in the “Praeludio,” the central work follows its “Prelude” with an expansive seven-minute “Fuga” and then two dance movements, a disarmingly lovely “Sarabande” and magnificent “Gigue/Double.” In the Prelude, Fuga, and Allegro in E-flat major BWV 998 (1735), bright movements frame an elaborate da capo fugue, and the emphasis on three-note patterns amplifies the lilting, dance-like quality of the material.

August 2021