New frontiers: Op.34 No.14

After much deliberation, I’ve decided that it’s time to expand the musical scope of this project. There’s simply not enough Bach keyboard music out there, and like half of it is fugues anyway. What we need is something fresh, something exciting. It’s time to break out of Bach’s box.

There are, of course, precedents. Switched-on Bach is excellent, but it’s just Bach. I’m looking for something more adventurous, bringing the Bach spirit into conversation with work by other great musicians. In this sense, my greatest inspiration is the hybrid of Mozart and Bach produced by sound and performance artist Nigel Tufnel.

So, in Tufnel’s spirit, I’m delighted to announce the inauguration of a new hybrid musical project: giving a Bach-style treatment to the works my favorite composer of all time, Sergei Rachmaninoff. And what better day to launch than the birthday of the great Russian composer? Please enjoy, then, this recording of the “Vocalise” Op.34 No.14, as it was intended to be heard: on harpsichord, with ornaments, and in sixth-comma meantone. And of course: transposed to D minor, the saddest of all keys.

P.S. Fine. “Bachmaninoff.” There you go.