{"id":6695,"date":"2026-10-27T14:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accademiaclub.com\/album\/the-bach-album-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:06:25","slug":"the-bach-album","status":"publish","type":"album","link":"https:\/\/accademiaclub.com\/en\/album\/the-bach-album\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bach Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Bach Album<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Baroque practice of adapting music originally written for one instrument to another is well known, and is documented in countless manuscripts and editions of the period. For musicians it was a natural way of expanding their own repertoire. Performers \u2013 nearly all of them also well-trained, expert composers \u2013 did not limit themselves to merely transcribing the music into another clef or notation. They knew how to exploit the strengths of their instrument \u2013 while concealing its weaknesses \u2013 so as to preserve the essence of the work and yet rewrite it as if the composer had conceived it for that new medium, with its own technical resources and its harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly interesting is the case of Bach and the musical transfer between melodic and harmonic instruments: on the one hand, his violin and oboe concertos, adapted for keyboard in Leipzig; on the other, some of his solo works for violin and cello<\/em>, instruments that the genius from Eisenach pushes to such extremes of polyphonic possibility that we know these same works in versions for organ or baroque lute by Bach himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this historical context, the viola da gamba<\/em> occupies a position of both need and privilege. Unfortunately, its Baroque solo repertoire (senza basso<\/em>) is relatively scarce and does not reach the sublime heights of Bach\u2019s finest works. Fortunately, its nature as a hybrid instrument allows it to enjoy both the polyphonic possibilities of a lute and the melodic possibilities of bowed instruments. Transcription is therefore as imperative as it is natural: a mere correction \u2013 if we may call it that \u2013 of the historical accident that deprived Bach of the chance to pour his immense talent into an instrument so particularly suited to his conception of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This innate fit between Bach\u2019s music and the nature of the viola da gamba<\/em> makes the transcriber\u2019s task particularly rewarding \u2013 in my case, work that was already necessary and familiar from earlier repertoires. The perfection of Bach\u2019s polyphonic writing, with its immaculate voice-leading, is underlined on the bass viola da gamba<\/em> by the resonance of the instrument. Sounds that in the originals for flute or violin have to be prolonged in our imagination can reverberate freely and sensually in the body of the viola da gamba, as naturally as in the works written for the instrument by Marais or Forqueray. For the viola da gamba player, this makes all the greater the pleasure of modestly taking up the baton from the great Bach and reaching the depths of the score in the most intimate way: by making his music my own, feeling it as much mine as if it had flowed from my own pen, like material sculpted from the very sonic substance of my instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with music of such perfect purity as Bach\u2019s, the process is always long and laborious, but above all joyful, for there is no better way for it to sound sincere, to communicate its meanings directly from musician to listener, as was the master\u2019s declared wish. The viola da gamba player has the privilege of recreating that intimate connection and, for a few magical moments, feeling Bach\u2019s poetic voice as his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fahmi Alqhai<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE BACH ALBUM
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Fahmi Alqhai, viola da gamba & adaptations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recorded in Seville, March and April 2016
Jordi Gil and Ale Barranco (Sputnik), recording
Rami Alqhai and Juan Ram\u00f3n Lara, advice and production<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Grave<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Fuga<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Andante<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Allegro<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, BWV 1010<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Pr\u00e9lude [Preludium]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Allemande<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Courante<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Sarabande<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Bourr\u00e9es I & II<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. Gigue<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Flute Partita in A minor, BWV 1013 [Solo pour fl\u00fbte traversi\u00e8re]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      1. Allemande<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Corrente<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Sarabande<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      4. Bourr\u00e9e angloise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        15. Ciaccona [Chaconne]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Adaptations: Fahmi Alqhai<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n