e42 CD / Johann Sebastian Bach: French Suites

5 reviews for e42 CD / Johann Sebastian Bach: French Suites

1. Klassik heute – 30. September 2011

   The Göttingen-born pianist Christoph Ullrich, who was mentored—and certainly influenced—by luminaries such as Leonard Hokanson, Claude Frank, and Rudolf Buchbinder, advocates for the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in a spontaneously appealing blend of practical solidity and an introspection that seems to emerge from the hidden, almost protected private sphere. Everything known, everything learned, appears purified in Ullrich’s awakening of the French Suites, entirely free of any pianistic showmanship. He circles and explores Bach’s keyboard creations—both literally and figuratively—as a discerning, feeling, and often astonished facilitator of rebirth, stirred by this music from an early age. Ullrich writes in the accompanying notes: “The roots of my deep reverence and friendship for Bach lie hidden beneath the colorful, intact world of my childhood.”

   Fortunately for the listener of this impeccably produced EigenArt edition, Ullrich’s explorations never conceal what he has discovered in terms of warmth, breadth of perspective, and structural elements. While many performers narrate these largely dance-like pieces in a personal instrumental “I”—energetic, brilliant, challenging—Ullrich allows himself the freedom to interpret Bach’s elevated entertainment music in a more suggestive manner. He grants both the slow and fast movements an aura of measured tranquility, and he paradoxically draws the listener close to the music and his personal experience precisely by maintaining a certain restrained distance as a Bach-revealer.

   Considering, for example, Glenn Gould’s meticulous dissection of the suites, András Schiff’s whimsical, disarmingly open Bach conversations, or Emil Gilels’ tender, sensual tone in the G major Suite (BWV 816), Ullrich’s “à la française” Bach proves to be a way of confirming the intimate relationships within the works without overt display. If you will: a subtle, cautious illumination of a subject can, in certain circumstances, lead to a clear, credible perception…

   Due to the limitations of CD playing time, Ullrich had to omit the complete series BWV 812 to BWV 817. One may regret this, yet simultaneously consider the possibilities of a double album. It would certainly be desirable to add the first suite later; enough “material” should be “hidden” in the performer’s childhood memories.

   Peter Cossé

2. Frankfurter Rundschau – 12. June 2011

   The Frankfurt pianist Christoph Ullrich traced his family tree back far, though he did not encounter a musician along the way. He did, however, come across a brewer who, in Arnstadt and thus at Bach’s first place of activity, practiced his craft.

   Was Bach, the notorious beer enthusiast, acquainted with Ullrich’s ancestor? In the booklet of his new CD of Bach’s French Suites, the pianist speculates as whimsically as he does pointedly, describing Bach’s keyboard music as a gift of gratitude and a “gift for the soul” from the 18th-century composer to the 20th-century pianist.

   Beer for suites—a fair trade. And Christoph Ullrich treats this reward carefully, indeed delicately. He plays the suites BWV 813–817 (BWV 812 is absent here) with a pronounced de-romanticized approach; only the G major Suite receives a fuller tone. The other works are mostly taken in a distinctly harpsichord-like manner, with non-legato clarity as his aim. Sonically interesting is the “real” una corda, specially prepared for the recording by Ullrich’s piano technician.

   When using the left pedal of the Steinway grand, not—as usual—two strings sound, but truly only one. This effect can be heard, for example, in the Minuet of Suite No. 3: the tone is thin, peculiarly isolated—a fingertip tone.

   Christoph Ullrich, in Frankfurt und der Region vor allem durch seine vielgestaltigen Kreativkonzepte in der Kinder- und Jugendarbeit bekannt, hat nach seinen vor sieben Jahren veröffentlichten, sinnlich- tiefsinnigen Mozart-CDs nun ein Bach-Album vorgelegt, das sich nicht minder durchdacht präsentiert. Etwas distanzierter, spröder auch, doch mit dem feinherbem Charme und der Geschmackssicherheit eines Brauer-Urururenkels.

   Stefan Schickhaus

3. Enjoy the music – 10. June 2011

   Tacet, a Germany based company that specializes in high resolution music on both disc and digital download, is now offering Johann Sebastian Bach French Suites BWV 813-817 with Christoph Ullrich on piano.

   Christoph Ullrich has a creative mind and has many ideas that he constantly wants to perform. He is well known from the "Ohrwurm" (Catchy Tune) Project, a kind of music workshop for school children that is meanwhile touring the country far beyond Hessen (his home province), making classical music more accessible to all kinds of children. With lots of fun, of course, as it could never be otherwise with Christoph Ullrich!

   This album features five French Suites of Bach and fun! Bach is a cosmos, greater than a simple head, and many things have room in this cosmos just so long as they don't limit the power of Bach's tones.

   As a result, Christoph Ullrich's playing is always organic and natural, as if it had to be done in just that way. You'll be surprised!

4. Pizzicato – 1. June 2011

   Christoph Ullrich presents a rather unconventional yet fundamentally classical Bach. What at first glance seems contradictory—can a classical approach really be unconventional?—proves to be an extraordinarily serious engagement with the French Suites. He emphasizes their dance character and avoids a rigidly structured or overly serious approach (not to be confused with ‘seriousness’). The works develop organically and with a certain spontaneity, yet without caprice or gimmicks.
   Alain Steffen

5. image hifi – 1. May 2011

   Day after day, many piano students struggle with the French Suites under the ticking of a metronome. They are playable and brief, hardly suitable for displaying virtuosic splendor. Bach wrote them for Anna Magdalena, his second wife, a singer. The interest of great pianists in them is remarkable: one sees it in Glenn Gould’s highly individual recording as well as Evgeni Koroliov’s exemplary interpretation, to name just two benchmark performances. For Christoph Ullrich, the appeal lies in being able to change perspective: “In Baroque music, there are very few performance instructions. I can vary the basic parameters of the music—tempo, dynamics, articulation, timbre—in infinitely many ways.” This is what he writes in the booklet—and this is exactly how he implements it. In communicating voices of perfect autonomy; in phrases that appear as vocal lines; in cheeky counterpoints; in a variety of touches—including imitation of a two-manual harpsichord in the Minuet of Suite No. 3—Ullrich seems to maintain some experimental workshop in which he searches for and finds all the sounds we didn’t even know the Steinway could produce. Bach has not sounded so spontaneous and multifaceted for a long time.
   Heinz Gelking