Friday, November 29, 2019

While We’re A-Pluckin’

     The contemporary use of the guitar is primarily as a “pop” or “rock” instrument. Yet it is one of the oldest of classical instruments as well, if we include its progenitor the lute.

     There’s a wealth of classical music written for the guitar, but my favorite performances are of transmogrified pieces, especially from the greatest of the Baroque composers: Johann Sebastian Bach. A couple of them have been “done to death:” “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “Bourre.” But many of Bach’s compositions for other instruments can be transmogrified to the guitar, albeit not without considerable effort.

     And so, because I’m in a “guitar mood,” have a beautiful guitar rendition of Bach’s Sonata II BWV 1003 Allegro, played by the extraordinarily gifted young Russian guitarist Tatyana Ryzhkova:

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