David Fray - David Fray Plays Schubert & Liszt - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

David Fray - Piano Concertos [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/13/2009

David Fray adds a landmark of the solo keyboard repertoire to his Bach discography the Goldberg Variations. InchThe Goldberg Variations are a real test,Inch he says. InchThey are the work of a lifetime, perhaps a work about life itself... a kind of rite of passage, a journey. Every element of human life is in them... When you play the theme again after the 30 variations, in it's original purity, it is as if you're at the end of your life, looking back over everything that has happened in the last hour-and-a-half. Few works give such a sense of eternityInch.

The music on this album gives rise to two intriguing questions. Firstly, are these concertos original Bachian creations? Secondly, should they be played on modern pianos. The two issues are in fact closely linked by the idea of transcription. Four of the keyboard concertos recorded here derive either from works originally composed by Bach for other instruments (this is true of the Concerto in Cminor, BWV1062 for two harpsichords - a transcription of the celebrated and exceptional Concerto in D minor for two violins, BWV1043), or from works by Bach of which we are more or less aware, but whose initial versions have not survived. This applies to the Concerto in C major, BWV1061 and the Concerto in C minor, BWV1060. As for the Concerto in A minor, BWV1065 for four harpsichords, it is a reworking of the tenth concerto from Vivaldi's L'Estro armonico, op.3, for four violins.