Bach: The Toccatas
This album includes Bach’s Toccatas for keyboard, BWV 910-916, in addition to three bonus tracks, the Kempff arrangement of BWV 1031, a selection from Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin and Poulenc’s Improvisation no. 13 in A minor.
Jonathan Ferrucci performs on this album using a Yamaha CFX piano. I don’t always know my pianos, but I often hear albums like this one and think “Gosh, that piano he or she is on? It sounds… awesome.” And many times now, I’m not surprised when it’s a CFX.
As far as piano albums go, it’s superbly recorded. The young, flexible pianist is seen in photos practicing yoga, which he finds important in his musical life. Yes, that’s different. The liner notes spend a lot of time discussing the artist’s background and approach with this music, rather than going deep into the pieces’ history.
Among all the things to admire, over the sound quality I’ve mentioned, is the artist’s strong articulation for the piano. In many ways I prefer it to the style employed by his mentor, Angela Hewitt, which is meant as a compliment to him.
The other quality that stands out is that Ferrucci doesn’t try to make these about himself, exploiting the music to show off to an audience; there are moments of brilliance, matched with the appropriate volume and dynamics, but I was so pleased to see variety of moods conveyed, some of which were introspective. In some ways, that restraint is refreshing.
Of course, some readers will be turned off by the use of a piano. But in this case, Ferrucci uses dynamics effectively, I think, to make the case for using a piano. Sure, these are things that would have been most difficult to realize upon a harpsichord, but in the service of the music, why not explore what’s possible? Track 2, the Allegro from BWV 911 is as good a place as any to hear all of this.
I also liked the bounce in his rendering of the Fugue from BWV 915. It’s successful not only because of the dynamics, but in the way he articulates the subject.
Among my favorite of the toccatas is the D minor one, BWV 913. The opening is, no doubt to me, a big, grand kind of piece, one that would have afforded Bach the opportunity to show off in the most dramatic way possible given the reach of a harpsichord. The fact that Ferrucci undermines this drama with extreme restraint, both dynamically, gesturally, and through rubato I think was a missed opportunity. That said, you may like this approach, insofar that he didn’t go the typical route, making this opening a showpiece.
The second movement of the same piece has a nice tempo; accompanied by a light touch. The Adagio evidently gave the pianist permission to use the sustain of the modern piano to play with the approach—which is fine. But the repeated figures that dominate this movement I felt could have been further exploited? I am reminded of the opening theme of Beethoven’s fifth symphony here, and wanted the repetition to be more emphatic.
The final movement of BWV 913 again starts off strong with a good tempo, and again, a bouncy effect that adds character to Bach’s theme, especially so here on the piano. How he carries that character between hands, it’s well done, with good technical control.
It’s the variation in touch and dynamics that doesn’t come into his approach with the fugue in the E minor toccata. I’d have liked more differentiation between the repeated notes. To his credit, his control across both hands with the dynamic phrasing he does provide is well executed.
The falling figure that dominates the second part of the F-sharp minor piece is I think handled well, both in its opening statement and later iterations. The different dynamics and articulated touches used I feel bring something palpable to this piece.
I can’t speak as to why the three bonus tracks were offered, except that this may well be the artist’s first solo album and they do well to showcase his playing outside the realm of Bach. Given the available time on the disc, why not?
Conclusions
This album for me was mostly enjoyable. While I admit all the interpretive solutions offered may not have been my desert island ideal, one thing did become very apparent throughout my listening session with this album: the artist has a great technique and command of dynamics and touch. I hope in his further exploration of Bach he’s open for changing things up between performances. None of these performances for me sounded definitive, yet they work well. It’s the wonderful thing about Bach on the piano, there are so many options that can work well.
I look forward to hearing more from this young artist, especially so as he continues to champion Bach’s music. To the credit of Audité, the sound quality from this recording is superb. Auditioned at high resolution via Qobuz using convolution filters for my headphones.
