Jory Vinikour: Bach Harpsichord Works
Sono Luminus

The passage of almost three hundred years has done nothing to diminish the lustre of Bach's harpsichord works, nor their ability to speak to us directly. No harpsichordist collapses that temporal divide seemingly more effectively than Jory Vinikour, a specialist in not only Bach's material for the instrument but those by contemporary composers too. Bach Harpsichord Works isn't his first Sono Luminus release, incidentally: his label debut, The Complete Harpsichord Works of Jean-Philippe Rameau, was nominated for a Grammy after its 2012 release, as was Toccatas, his 2013 recording of modern American harpsichord works; also well-received was Bach's Partitas for Solo Harpsichord, issued in 2016. Vinikour's as comfortable performing the works of old masters as contemporary figures such as Michael Nyman and György Ligeti.

Without wishing to suggest other recordings by the Chicago-born Vinikour aren't vital acquisitions for serious collectors of harpsichord recordings, in presenting the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, and two other multi-movement works in a seventy-minute programme, this new one appears to offer everything said devotee could possibly desire.

Published in 1735, the Italian Concerto is the perfect scene-setter, its tri-part structure able to accommodate both the regal brilliance of the exuberant “Allegro” and “Presto” and, with its florid trills and graceful lilt, the pensive “Adagio.” The episodic “Fantasy” introduces the celebrated Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue with a cadenza-like display before moving onto a sober recitative; the “Fugue,” on the other hand, is a multi-patterned, monumental creature that builds incrementally to a glorious resolution. The album-closing Prelude, Andante, and Fugue wends its way from the stunning “Prelude,” which demands a level of virtuosity Vinikour's more than able to meet, on through the stately “Andante” and the frothy, triplets-powered “Fugue.”

Towering over those three pieces is the recording's central work, the Overture in the French Style, whose eight-part design follows the overture proper with courante, gavotte, passepied, sarabande, bourée, and gigue movements before a closing “Echo.” Encompassing in scope, the work traverses a broad stylistic and emotional spectrum as it advances through its nearly half-hour presentation. Introducing the work with nobility, “Ouverture” progresses from a sombre opening into livelier sequences that are anything but downtrodden. Whereas the “Courante” and “Sarabande” are ponderous, the lively “Gavottes,” “Passepieds,” and “Bourées” raise the spirits. “Echo” turns out to be aptly named, given that the titular effect is simulated through pitch differences between the lower and upper keyboards.

A major part of the recording's allure has to do, of course, with the resplendent sound of the instrument itself, as well as how completely its chiming incandescence floods the listening space. In these renditions, Vinikour brings forth the orchestral richness of the harpsichord but also a delicacy that we perhaps less associate with it. That the material performed so definitively by him is Bach's makes the recording all the more rewarding.

March 2020