Hopkinson Smith

One of today’s 'popes' of early and baroque lute playing, Hopkinson Smith returns to the magic masterpieces of Bach and records the renowned Suites BWV 1007, 1008 and 1009, transcribed by himself for the German theorbo...

Bach was a musical ecologist, the masterful recycler of his own compositions, arranging more than a few from one instrument or combination of instruments to another. Many of his works seem conceived on a somewhat abstract plane, above and beyond any specific instrument, and it was completely natural for the pragmatic 18th-century mind and ear to adapt them to the instrument of its choice.

Among the so-called ‘official’ lute works of Bach, there exist two such adaptations: from the solo violin repertoire, the Third Partita, BWV 1006, becomes BWV 1006a for the lute, and the Fifth Cello Suite is transformed into the Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995. Of course, lutenists had been adapting music for their instrument for centuries. More than half of the continental lute music of the Renaissance is made up of adaptations of vocal works. In the French baroque, Robert de Visée couldn’t stop making transcriptions for his theorbo of orchestral and keyboard works by his contemporaries. The great 18th-century German lutenist, Sylvius Weiss, a friend of Bach’s, was said to have played violin concertos directly on the lute. These examples of adaptations are not given as a kind of ‘justification’ for the present project as if the idea needed to be defended historically. It is more to guide the modern musical thinker (who sometimes knows more about ‘authenticity’ than did the musicians of former times) to the state of experimentation and discovery that is completely natural for the musician: one sits alone with one’s instrument without a score, playing melodies and harmonies that one has heard here or there and making them one’s own.

Bach’s writing in these suites is as varied and inventive as ever. Melodious, boisterous, amazingly delicate, expansively lyrical, then cleverly busy with detail in complicated figuration… I see my intention in arranging for a plucked instrument as a challenge to approach ‘what Bach himself might have done’ in adapting a piece from one medium to another. No one can ever know for sure, of course, but familiarity with his chamber music and keyboard works gives clues. Where the cello writing is melodious with occasional chords (places in the Allemandes and Sarabandes), the plucked instrument can provide a fuller accompaniment.”

Francesco Canona or Canova was born near Milan in 1497 and died in 1543. It was his place of birth rather than his family name which was almost exclusively used when referring to him during his professional life. He was the personal lutenist in Rome to Cardinal Ippolito de Medici and to Popes Leo X (1513-1521), Clement VII (1523-34), and Paul III (1534-1549). Francesco’s first printed works date from 1536. In that year, three publications appeared, two of which were devoted only to works by Francesco. The third was an anthology in which his music can be found alongside anonymous dances and pieces by his contemporaries. The works which have survived are of two types, Fantasias or Recercars, and vocal works, of which there are two in this program. Several anonymous dances also appear in this selection which are taken from Castigliono’s book of 1536. Also included is one dance by their contemporary, Alberto da Mantova, who is also represented in the 1536 book and who was lutenist to François I in France where he was know as Albert de Rippe.

Born in New York in 1946, Hopkinson Smith graduated from Harvard with Honours in Music in 1972. After his studies he became involved in numerous chamber music projects, including the foundation of the ensemble Hespèrion XX. His ten-year collaboration with Jordi Savall led to important experiences in collective music-making which were a creative complement to his career as a soloist. Since the mid-1980s, he has focused almost exclusively on the solo repertoires for early plucked instruments, producing a long series of prize-winning recordings for Naïve/Astrée. These feature Spanish music for vihuela and Baroque guitar, French lute music of the Renaissance and Baroque, early seventeenth-century Italian music, and the German High Baroque. The recording of his lute arrangements of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, released in the year 2000, has been universally acclaimed in the press. Gramophone called it ‘the best recording of these works on any instrument’.

This specially priced 2CD set has been released to mark the 10th anniversary of Naïve and presents a wonderful selection of pieces recorded for the label by many of the greatest artists of our time including Marc Minkowski, Accentus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Anne Gastinel, Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Lise de la Salle.