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Phil Muse

British pianist Jonathan Philips, a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music with over a hundred performances of concertos by such major figures as Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Schumann under his belt, shows that he can distinguish himself in the quiet, solo repertoire for piano as well. This album of keyboard pieces by J. S. Bach is called “Tranquillity,” and the title is well chosen.

Pieces such as these must have meant a great deal to Bach who is known to have played them frequently in his own moments of quiet-hour pleasure and refreshment. Such moments must have meant a great deal to someone whose life was often quite turbulent. (Bach, as a matter of fact, was once reprimanded by the authorities for getting into an altercation with a fellow musician, whom he taunted by calling a “nanny-goat bassoonist,” to the point where swords were drawn. Happily, friends intervened and no one was injured in the fracas!)

In the present program, Jonathan Philips has carefully selected music that affords pleasure to listener and performer alike, ultimately giving rise to feelings of centeredness and well-being. They include various preludes and fugues, conceived as such, as well as extracts from such larger works as the Largo from the Organ Concerto in D Minor, BWV 596; the Lutheran chorale Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (Come Now, Saviour of the Nations), BWV 659a, which Bach was to use in his Cantata No. 61 and which is heard here in the famous arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni. Also, the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988; the Andante from his Italian Concerto, BWV 971; and the Largo from Organ Concerto No. 4 in D Minor, BWV 596, to cite only some of the more familiar pieces.

We are also given excerpts, finely conceived, and executed by Philips, from the English Suites nos. 1 and 2, the Adagio from the Toccata in C major, BWV 564, in another memorable Busoni arrangement; plus, Bach’s own setting, BWV 974, of the hauntingly beautiful Adagio from the Oboe Concerto in E Minor by Alessandro Marcello.

There are 21 pieces in all in this album “Tranquillity,” all calculated to appeal to the inner man or woman in us all. And the performances are as treasurable as the music itself.