Luogo e data di registrazione		Doopsgezinde Gemeente Kerk, Haarlem (Holland) - 1985
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Recording Supervision		Dr. Thomas Gallia | Klaus L Neumann | Benjamin Bernfeld
	Engineer		Sonart, Milano / harmonia mundi acustica
	Prima Edizione LP		Harmonia Mundi (EMI Electrola) | 1C 067-16 9528 1 | 1 LP - durata 47' 53" | (p) 1985 | DIGITAL
	Edizione CD		Deutsche Harmonia Mundi | LC 0761 | 567 16 8528 2 | 1 CD - durata 47' 53" | (9) 1985 | DDD Deutsche Harmonia Mundi | LC 0761 | GD 77014 | 1 CD - durata 47' 53" | (c) 1995 | DDD
	Cover Art		Familienbild. Gemälde von Gillis van Tilborgh um 1625-1678. Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Wallraf-Richartz-Museums, Köln.
	Note		Eine Coproduktion mit dem WDR Köln.

We tend nowadays to view arrangements of old music somewhat sceptically, bieng in general of the opinion that one should respect the form in which a work of art was created. Such a maxim is easy enough to follow when applied to literature of the fine arts: no one would seriously have the audacity these days to re-touch an old master or to tamper with the text of a great author. As regards music, however, the problem takes a somewhat different shape: a piece of music can be said fully to exist only in this or that performance, but each performance, at the same time, unavoidably adapts the work in some way to the present. The modern practice of so-called "historical performances" is an effort to reduce this effect; by attempting to reconstruct the instruments and performing practices of the period in which older works were composed, the performers hope to achieve the "original sound". It might strike one as paradoxial that this very school of thought should itself produce an arrangement of a piece of old music. In fact, however, careful consideration shows that it is completely consistent with the attempt to take the historical presuppositions of a work into account. The history of music shows that our modern view of the relation between the musical text and its interpretations or between the original and its arrangements or adaptations is itself historically conditioned and cannot simply be applied uncritically to the music of other epochs. For example, in order to perform the thoroughbass or the ornaments in a Baroque composition one must not only be versed in the historical rules but must also be a good improviser. And often enough the sources for a composition from the 17th or early 18th century are such that a modern editor will find it impossible to say exactly what the original version of the work was. Experiences such as these have led us to realize that the full dimensions of a Baroque composition are not revealed in any single version, no matter how "original", nor in any single interpretation, no matter how true to the work and historically accurate - an insight whose historical relevance is documented by the numerous arrangements which Bach made of both his own works and those of others and which Bach's contemporaries made of this compositions, The idea of making new arrangements of Bach's works did not, however, originate with the relatively recent historical movement. As early as the 19th century, there were numerous attempts to "improve upon" or "enrich" his compositions, especially the sonatas and partitas for solo violin. The arrangers of that period were, however, allowed liberies which would be unthinkable nowadays, as is made quite clear by the review of the "selected Works from the solo violin sonatas, arranged for pianoforte by Joachim Raff" which was published in 1869 in the "Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung" in Leipzig. The reviewer remarks how the accompaniment "heightens and adorns" Bach's motives and points out the "figures and motives" added at places which "Bach had intended to be polyphonic but which are not completely polyphonic due to the limitations of the instrument". Nonetheless, at some points the reviewer does exhibit scruples about Raff's methods. Having already commented at the beginning of his article that a previously published arrangement of the chaconne from the 2nd partita betrays an over-powerful urge to turns this composition into a brilliant piano piece along modern lines, he notes reproachfully: "One could point out several individual passages which are written more in the modern way than in Bach's style." It is characteristic of our modern-day approach to the art of bygone eras that a contemporary arrangement should take as its model the practices of Bach's own period rather than perpetuating this 19th-century tradition. This model is clearly illustrated here by the harpsichord version of the first movement of the third sonata (BWV 1005), arranged by one of Bach's contemporaries who was a member of his own circle. Comparing this arrangement with the original, we see that the differences between the two are essentially attributable to the different tonal properties of the instruments. The transposition, doubling and augmenting of the intervals between the parts are related to the greater tonal range of the harpsichord; on th other hand, the fact that long note-values are split up into shorter ones, that the chords are more dense and that arpeggios are used to bolster the harmonies are due to the more limited capacity of the keyboard instrument for holding, intensifying and modulating the tone. The problems posed by the other movements differ in accordance with the character of the movement in question: when transferring a fugue, for example, from the violin to the harpsichord, the parts must be elaborated; in a slow movement, the harpsichord version requires additional contrapuntal and chordal elements in ordder to maintain the same density of sound; and in fast movements, changes in the register and the chording of the melody as well as harmonic supporting material provide that structural orientation which the violin can create by means of dynamics and accentuation. In what way, we may ask in concluding, do these arrangements reveal new dimensions of Bach's work? Most importantly, they transcend the specific limitations and qualities of an individual instrument, thus laying bare the musical substance. At first glance, it might seem impossible that a given composition should be capable of bridging the differences between the musical presuppositions inherent in the violin and the harpsichord. Tha fact that these works show it to be possible after all is sue in part to the adaptability of musical compositions in the Baroque period and in part to the extraordinary quality of Bach's art. Kurt Deggeller