Pachelbel (on piano)

Pachelbel - Anton Batagov

Johann Pachelbel is known to you more than likely for his work for three violins and continuo, his Canon and Gigue in D major, which has been a favorite at weddings. Why, it’s difficult to say, except that the piece’s structure is built upon a repeating bass figure and gets more complex over time. The harmonies used by Pachelbel in his works is recognizable and comfortable to us. I remember hearing his name for the first time in the 7th grade, in my boy's choir class in middle school. What a strange name, I thought. Our teacher, Mr. Lora, also introduced us to the name Buxtehude. Even more bizarre!

This album collects “7 works” by the Pachelbel, here, performed on piano, an instrument we can certainly say the composer never knew. He did, however, write for the organ and harpsichord, in addition to writing string ensemble pieces. As a church-based musician, he also wrote vocal music, which was highly praised.

So? Pachelbel on the piano?

Batagov is a Russian pianist and composer, probably best known for his performance of works by Philip Glass. There is a kind of no-nonsense minimalistic approach to his performance of these works; he’s not approaching these pieces romantically. In the Chaconne in C, P. 38, he injects a lot of space in between the running line and bass both, nearly imitating the percussive sound of a harpsichord in some capacity. Playing with this touch is certainly more difficult, although there’s an odd sense it gives me too, as it’s somehow artificially constructed, that no one really plays a piano like that. Or, why would they?

The effect, however, is very clean. While dynamics play a role in his performances, they are applied in broad strokes, to differentiate one section with another, and he’s less interested in introducing dynamics within phrases. In this way, he’s kind of mimicking the effect of changing registration on an organ or harpsichord.

I’ll be transparent here, I wasn’t expecting to like an album of Pachelbel’s music on the piano. But the first thing you’ll notice about this recording is how well the piano is captured and what a gorgeous instrument he records upon. It’s listed as a Steinway model C from the late 1800s. Some pedal sounds are audible, but I really enjoy feeling as if I’m laying down near his instrument, able to hear the instrument’s sonority so well and clear. As far as piano recordings go, this one is gorgeously captured.

There’s also another thought that comes to mind as I listened—that Pachelbel’s music with this approach is laid before us rather nakedly, that is to say, it’s stripped of its own sound world. This has been done with other Baroque masters, from Scarlatti, Handel, and of course Bach. And of course Gould was most famous among the interpreters for exploring how Bach’s music could fit into the mechanism of the piano, eventually doing what Batagov is doing here, by capitalizing upon short attack. The shortness goes away, evoking more of the organ, by the time the pianist here gets to the end of the same C major chaconne. When the change in articulation happens it’s welcomed, before a final retreat to the shortness in the bass.

Those used to hearing Pachelbel in the robes of an HIPP may find this approach wholly unsatisfying. The octave bass treatment in the Fantasia in A minor, P. 126, to me, feels artificial and mannered. Wherein the right hand melodic material gets performed legato, the contrast with that left hand feels somewhat unnatural, at least in how we might expect to hear it at the organ. But that’s what this pianist is bringing to the fore by adapting the music to the piano.

The Chaconne in D, P.40, opens loud and full, for me, a good imitation of the organ. That texture gives way to legato melodic material between two voices in the right hand before the bass comes “knocking” that space around each note. Musically, the variety again with articulation is interesting.

I’d step away for a moment to recall the approach Keith Jarrett took when performing the first book of Bach’s Well-tempered clavier on ECM New Series. He applied a pretty regular articulation across his entire performance that I felt, ultimately, left the music presented blandly. The effect on this recording is far more interesting, to the point of recalling the heavy writing of Sweelinck. It’s not the music style that is as familiar, but the articulation that recalls the constant movement in his writing. At about 4:50 into the D major Chaconne, Batagov changes articulation again, to the point in my ears of nearly getting a bit schmaltzy, à la George Winston. I could have done without that.

The rising figures that follow, again played with generous space between the notes, is convincing. The tempo seems well chosen, making the faster rising figures that come inspiring a smile from me. It might be worth hearing what this music may have sounded like to Pachelbel and his worshippers. I auditioned the same piece performed on the organ by John Butt (Harmonia Mundi, Hexachordum Apollinis). The extended passages written in two voices without bass support to me felt strange, especially naked on the piano; but it feels much the same under Butt’s fingers on the organ, a type of extended fantasia. The harmonies, of course, are still implied. The space that Batagov introduces on the piano is eerily similar to the sound in Ralph Kirkpatrick’s performance of the same work on harpsichord.

The last piece on this recording isn’t a keyboard piece, but could you imagine someone picking up a Pachelbel album and feeling cheated if there was no Canon in D?

Batagov applies his moving figure that really isn’t an imitation of an organ or harpsichord providing basso continuo support, but instead he moves the music along with a repeated figure outlying the triads. After about two minutes in, things change to legato again, and he may again be channeling our friend George Winston by doing so.

Yes, Batagov provides a more legitimate performance than Winston did. For fans of the work, I’m sure they will enjoy it, and as ever, Batagov is applying his tried and true technique on the piano to render the piece clearly and cleanly. I ultimately will skip this track if I listen to this album again.

And I think I will. For as much as I have listened to Pachelbel’s music outside of the famous Canon, I’ve never heard a presentation of his music that made me actually sit-up and listen to it! And no, this is not historically informed, but it’s historically-aware, let’s say that. Batagov’s varying of articulation and dynamics shows us he is acutely aware of the character of Pachelbel’s own instrumentarium, but somehow it is presented here without those colors. Hearing the music this way—as I described it, naked—for me was a fun listen.

At the end of the day, I am convinced this recital and recording is a good thing to bring awareness to us about Pachelbel’s gifts as a composer. While I think this approach would have seemed ultimately foreign to the composer, one cannot deny the other benefits afforded us in a presentation like this on piano.

Stress-testing music can be a fun exercise and I think it works for a lot of baroque music. Because of the way the music was written, in many cases we might say “portable” to be realized on different keyboards or even in arrangements that include winds and strings, much of this music isn’t fully dependent upon one kind of instrument.

The colors and texture that I enjoyed in re-listening to John Butt’s album was nice, and it reveals the benefits of the HIPP approach to so-called early music. If I could only have one Pachelbel album, I’d choose Butt’s.

But this new album by Batagov provided me the opportunity to hear Pachebel’s keyboard works in a new way, a way that had me thinking about his structure, the relationship between bass and melody, and ultimately his style, comfortable in spinning out variations over a steady repeating bass line, the hallmark we ultimately get from listening to his Canon, P. 37.

I can’t say that I’m familiar with too many pianists performing Pachelbel. And maybe that’s why I’m open to it. But maybe it is time? And Anton Batagov shows us what consistent good technique can do to elevate the experience in new light.