In 2012 I recorded, purely for personal use, all the Bach solo arrangements I had made up until then, including the first four movements of the second partita. After listening to them I realized that my self-imposed decree to keep my hands off the chaconne from that partita, suddenly no longer seemed etched in stone.So I took a stab at producing a convincing version of it.
Following my Paganini formula, I first made an ‘analytical’ version: one that would do justice to the construction of the music, disregarding all thoughts of what might be fun to play. An important step, because otherwise you end up taking the instrumental route too soon. Bach’s music is implicitly polyphonic: a melody usually contains more than one voice, played in turn and together forming the melodic curve as a whole. The register and relationship between the voices largely determine the buildup of tension in the music.
This applies to nearly all of Bach’s music, but in the violin works he often uses multiple strings simultaneously to explicitly underscore the polyphony. So first I had to find a credible solution for the issue of polyphony. After that the other me would get his chance: the saxophone player who had free rein to determine what sounded good and, perhaps more importantly, where the advantages of the saxophone over the violin (arpeggios, for instance, are easier to play on the saxophone) could be put to good use. In this inner collaboration, the analyst constantly had the upper hand, for we were talking about a meticulously constructed work by the greatest musical architect ever.
The resulting version satisfied both my identities: the analyst and the instrumentalist. With a sense of liberation I set to work on the remaining movements of the partitas, which went with hardly a hitch.
DISC 2
Raaf Hekkema: Since I started teaching at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, I have become more conscious of my self-chosen mission: to create a place for the saxophone within the classical music tradition. One way to do this is to forge a stronger bond between the players and the classical tradition, in the knowledge that the saxophone repertoire too is indebted to the great composers of the past. The most influential of them all is, without a doubt, Johann Sebastian Bach.
The path to this recording was long, windy and fascinating. It started with the awareness that the cello suites provide exceptional playing material for saxophonists. But I long felt that for playing Bach on the saxophone, only the light-sounding soprano saxophone would do—which was, I believed, incompatible with the instrument for which the suites were written. During preparations for my previous CD recording of Bach’s partitas for violin (Challenge Classics, CC 72648), I discovered that the alto sax—fitted with an old-style mouthpiece—could reproduce the refined articulation of the violin. Vintage mouthpieces represent the sound ideal of days gone by. Then came the idea to play the suites on six different saxophones, each of which holds a unique place in the history of the instrument. After that, much time went into working out a usable assignment of transpositions and an appropriate choice of instruments, the resulting sound character being the deciding factor.
DISC 3
Once again, this album celebrates the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, whom many consider to be the greatest composer of all time. After Bach’s Partitas(Bach Partitas for Saxophone [CC 72648])and his Suites(Bach Suites for Saxophone [CC 72769]), I am now presentingBach Solo, a new solo album containing my own selection of works.
The pandemic in 2020-21 brought little to dispel the gloom among performing musicians. Concerts and tours were cancelled for an extensive period, meaning that musicians and other performing artists were confined to home with no work. Musical life was falteringly restored here and there during those years, only to have everything closed down again on virtually no notice. But these months also proved to be a time of reflection and artistic rebirth for many. A large number of children were born as a result of the pandemic, but the arts became a breeding ground forspiritualoffspring, 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 theSonataI have assembled from Bach’s three sonatas for solo violin. While working on Bach’s solo violin pieces around ten years ago, I rapidly decided to confine myself to the partitas. Although these do not belong together as such, often being published with a sonata in between them, I felt it was a sensible choice, given that they are generally of a less complex texture. The sonatas would have to wait until I felt brave enough and had gained some more experience. I felt I had finally reached that point during one of the Corona lockdowns. I started with a couple of movements that I felt would be good samples, avoiding the fugues, which are almost unplayable even on the violin but could only be performed on the saxophone - a single voice melodic instrument – with some artificial help. I did not feel that would be appropriate to this style. After a lot of experimentation in different transpositions, it turned out to be possible to mould six of the total of twelve sonata movements into one cohesive whole, with the two central movements being in parallel major keys. Even though a sonata in six movements may go against musical tradition, I feel it is a very satisfactory solution from a musical perspective.
Album tracks
DISC 1
Partita II, BWV 1004: I. Allemanda
Partita II, BWV 1004: II. Corrente
Partita II, BWV 1004: III. Sarabanda
Partita II, BWV 1004: IV. Giga
Partita II, BWV 1004: V. Ciaccona
Partita III, BWV 1006: I. Preludio
Partita III, BWV 1006: II. Loure
Partita III, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau
Partita III, BWV 1006: IV. Menuet I - Menuet II
Partita III, BWV 1006: V. Bourrée
Partita III, BWV 1006: VI. Gigue
Partita I, BWV 1002: I. Allemanda
Partita I, BWV 1002: II. Double
Partita I, BWV 1002: III. Corrente
Partita I, BWV 1002: IV. Double-Presto
DISC 2
I Prelude
I Allemande
I Courante
I Sarabande
I Menuet I & II
I Gigue
II Prelude
II Allemande
II Courante
II Sarabande
II Menuet I & II
II Gigue
III Prelude
III Allemande
III Courante
III Sarabande
III Bouree I & II
III Gigue
IV Prelude
IV Allemande
IV Courante
IV Sarabande
IV Bourree I&II
IV Gigue
V Prelude
V Allemande
V Courante
V Sarabande
V Gavotte I&II
V Gigue
VI Prelude
VI Allemande
VI Courante
VI Sarabande
VI Gavotte I&II
VI Gigue
DISC 3
Sonata
Performed on a Yanagisawa soprano saxophone (1992), mouthpiece Vandoren S27
[1]Adagio BWV 1001/1
[2]Allegro BWV 1003/4
[3]Largo BWV 1005/3
[4]Allegro assai BWV 1005/4
[5]Grave BWV 1003/1
[6]Presto BWV 1001/4
[7] Chromatic Fantasia BWV 903
Performed on a Buffet-Crampon Prestige alto saxophone (1984),
vintage mouthpiece cut by Raaf Hekkema
[8] Fantasia BWV 922
Performed on a Yanagisawa soprano saxophone (1992), mouthpiece Vandoren S27
Prelude & Allegro BWV 998
Performed on a Buescher straight alto saxophone (1927), mouthpiece by Buescher
[9]Prelude
[10]Allegro
Partita BWV 1013
Performed on a Buescher curved soprano saxophone (1924), mouthpiece by Buescher
