Bach-Reger Transcriptions for Piano Duet: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-6 & Organ Works

Lebenslanger Maßstab und Mentor Max Regers war Johann Sebastian Bach. Ihm hat der Spätromantiker nachgeeifert, ihn hat er gespielt – und bearbeitet. So auch die sechs Brandenburgischen Konzerte in eine Fassung für Klavier zu vier Händen gebracht. Das Pianoduo Norie Takahashi und Björn Lehmann agiert ungemein präzis, wie aus einem Guss. Die schnellen Sätze künden von sprühender, unbändiger Musizierlust. So beherzt, so leicht, so musikantisch kann Kontrapunktik klingen! Die langsamen Etappen – man denke etwa ans Andante des zweiten Konzerts – kreieren eine völlig andere, eine romantische Welt, werden zum Nocturne, zum emotionalen Zentrum der Werke. Sehr schön die aufs Klavier umgehobene Bach’sche Orgelmusik. Überraschung: Reger führt die c-Moll-Passacaglia BWV 582 – entgegen jeder Erwartung – nicht zum strahlenden Dur-Schluss im Fortissimo, sondern lässt das gewichtige Variationen-Opus sanft und leise verebben. Ein Bogen zurück zum sachte inszenierten Anfang. Ja: komponierte Interpretation.

Concertos date from the early 1900s. They were so well received, so we are told, that they had to be reprinted only two years later. Who was buying them? I can’t believe they were intended for musical suburban husbands and wives so they had a bit of Bach to belt out on their Bechstein. The technical demands are well beyond the reach of the average amateur but, like many another duet arrangement, offer a completely new perspective on the originals.

Reger’s main preoccupation as a Bach transcriber was, of course, with the organ works and it is his profound knowledge of counterpoint that makes these Brandenburg arrangements so successful. Moreover, while a couple of Brandenburgs is usually quite enough at one sitting (for this writer, at least), here, once I started I couldn’t stop. It’s many a long year since I enjoyed this marvellous, life-enhancing set so much. Who knew that Reger could be such fun?

A great deal of this is down to the immaculate pinpoint ensemble of Norie Takahashi and Björn Lehmann and the rhythmic buoyancy of their execution. With properly brisk tempos, the outer movements bubble along with an insatiable joie de vivre. They use a minimum of pedal, too, so the complex voicing is always crystal-clear, underpinned by a springy, resonant bass line, while the upper treble, which so often in present-day recordings flies off into a different airier acoustic, here is firmly linked to the lower registers. The piano sound is, to my taste, ideal. All the concertos are recorded on a splendid Yamaha with the exception of No 5. That is played on a Steingraeber in a barely noticeably different acoustic/location.

As far as Reger’s organ transcriptions are concerned, Takahashi and Lehmann offer us two works (the ubiquitous Toccata and Fugue in D minor and the St Anne Prelude and Fugue) which Reger also arranged for piano solo, together with his (only) version of the mighty Passacaglia, BWV582. These provide a judicious contrast to the boisterous Brandenburgs.

Here, in short, is a pair of discs to return to often. In fact, my one complaint about the whole enterprise is the deathless prose of its prolix booklet.

[…] Max Reger’s two-piano arrangements of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are something special, and a new recording from the Piano Duo Takahashi | Lehmann does them proud – Reger’s invention and imagination, and love for the music, jumps off every page. Sample them in the Fourth Concerto.

Das Piano Duo Takahashi Lehmann legt seine nunmehr vierte CD-Produktion bei Audite vor. Sie enthält Transkriptionen von Johann Sebastian Bachs Brandenburgischen Konzerten, sowie der Passacaglia BWV 582, der Toccata und Fuge BWV 565 und des Präludiums und Fuge BWV 552 durch den deutschen Komponisten Max Reger. Die Interpretationen fallen durch ein ebenso alertes wie feinfühliges und vor allem extrem transparentes, dynamisch exzellent variiertes sowie sehr farbenreiches Spiel auf, das die Brandenburgischen in einem neuen, attraktiven Licht erscheinen lässt.