{"id":143767,"date":"2024-02-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=143767"},"modified":"2024-02-22T08:38:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:38:33","slug":"review-plinio-fernandes-spellbinding-bacheando-explores-the-lasting-influence-of-j-s-bach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/review-plinio-fernandes-spellbinding-bacheando-explores-the-lasting-influence-of-j-s-bach\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Pl\u00ednio Fernandes\u2019 Spellbinding \u2018Bacheando\u2019 Explores the Lasting Influence of J.S. Bach\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes it feels almost inevitable that a classical guitarist will eventually record a \u201cBach album\u201d during their career. Solo guitar arrangements of J.S. Bach pieces have been de rigueur since Segovia first recorded various works in the late 1920s\u2014and then made Bach a vital part of his performing repertoire for the rest of his long, influential career. The appeal and the challenges of playing Bach\u2019s pieces are self-evident. But you really have to be on your game to play them well<\/em>, which is one reason the Bach album is often a mid- or late-career choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Pl\u00ednio Fernandes, Bacheando (Decca Gold)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brazilian guitarist Pl\u00ednio Fernandes<\/a> (profiled in the January\/February 2024 issue<\/a>) is still in his mid-20s, and Bacheando<\/a><\/em> is just his second full-length release, following his brilliant 2022 Decca debut, Saudade<\/a><\/em>. And it\u2019s not an all<\/em>-Bach album by any means, but rather a spellbinding collection of works by Bach and by a few notable modern Brazilian composers who were deeply affected and influenced by Bach. So a lot of what\u2019s here is really more 20th-century Brazilian than early 18th-century Baroque.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A through line common to both of Fernandes\u2019 albums is the heavy participation of perhaps Brazil\u2019s most important contemporary classical guitar figure, S\u00e9rgio Assad<\/a>: His guitar arrangements of modern pieces by Brazilian musician-composers Paulinho Nogueira (the delightful \u201cBachianinha No. 1\u201d and \u201cNo. 2\u201d); Mario Albanese (the short, bossa-inflected \u201cJequibach\u201d); Heitor Villa-Lobos (the prelude of the famous \u201cBachianas Brasileiras No. 4\u201d) are all standouts, as is his transcription of the \u201cAdagio\u201d from Bach\u2019s Concerto in D Minor<\/em> (BWV 974), written for keyboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other tranche of actual Bach is a marvelous reading of the three-part Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-Flat Major<\/em> (BWV 998), originally for lute and popularized first by Segovia and then by John Williams, among others. On Fernandes\u2019 album, that Bach work is followed immediately by Assad\u2019s own triptych Preludio, Fuga e Vivace<\/em>, which veers from the Bach influence almost immediately\u2014it has moments that sound like John Fahey-esque American primitive folk themes and even blues\u2014but still feels somehow structurally connected to the German master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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