Mak Grgic – Mak|Bach (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24bit/96kHz | Time – 58:01 minutes | 846 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © MicroFest Records
Using custom re-fretted guitars, Mak Grgic revolutionizes the standard repertoire with Renaissance & Baroque historical tunings, and premiering newly commissioned works that explore notes that have, quite simply, never been heard on the guitar before. Mak Grgic has been described as imaginative, gifted, and expressive (NY Times) and a guitarist to keep an eye on (Washington Post). His wide-ranging repertoire includes avant-garde, film, and popular musical styles while still retaining great classics for the instrument. As Young Artist in Residence at The Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, Grgic co-founded DC8, Da Cameras contemporary music ensemble that was called an inspiring addition to the contemporary music landscape in Los Angeles (LA Times). Grgic received a Bachelors Degree from the University for music and Performing Arts of Vienna, and his Doctoral Degree at the USC Thornton School of music. He is on the faculty of MSMU in Los Angeles, holds Artistic Directorships of Zagreb Guitar Festival, the interdisciplinary arts festival Bilijke I Svirke in Croatia, and serves as Artistic Advisor of Hong Kong International Guitar Festival.
The young guitarist Mak Grgic is a versatile figure who has reached into pop (he opened for pop star k.d. lang on tour) but also experimented with the fairly arcane world of microtonal playing. MAK/Bach involves some of the same duality; Bach’s music transfers well to the guitar, and albums of Bach transcribed for the instrument are widely enjoyed. Grgic is a wonderful Bach player, graceful and attentive to small detail, and the studio work of his MicroFest Records engineers is superb. Then there’s the more obscure side. Grgic plays a guitar with movable frets (there’s an image in the booklet notes), and it’s tuned here to a temperament called Kirnberger III devised by Bach’s contemporary Johann Kirnberger. The “Well-Tempered Guitar” heading in the notes is a bit of a misnomer, for this differs from the equal temperament that Bach sought to popularize with his Well-Tempered Clavier keyboard collection in which everything is slightly adjusted so as to make all the intervals equal and give pieces played in any key roughly the same effect. It takes a bit of ear-tuning for those used to equal temperament, but the effect is intriguing. Grgic quotes Kirnberger to the effect that “each key has its own special degrees and intervals through which it receives its own character.” Here, listeners get to try it out mostly for the keys of A minor (the Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor is transposed to that key) and D major. Chorales with pungent dissonances frame the multi-movement pieces and condition the ear, as it were, to some of the more extreme dissonances found in the multi-movement works. Of the group of guitarists emerging from Eastern Europe, Grgic is perhaps the most interesting, and this beautifully recorded album offers a good place to sample his work.
Tracklist:
1. Matth”auspassion, BWV 244: No. 3, Herzliebster Jesu (Arr. for Guitar) (00:51)
2. Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013 (Arr. for Guitar): I. Allemande (03:37)
3. Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013 (Arr. for Guitar): II. Corrente (03:08)
4. Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013 (Arr. for Guitar): III. Sarabande (04:25)
5. Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013 (Arr. for Guitar): IV. Bourr’ee anglaise (02:23)
6. Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 279 (Arr. for Guitar) (01:16)
7. Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 (Arr. for Guitar): I. Adagio (04:03)
8. Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 (Arr. for Guitar): II. Fuga (06:18)
9. Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 (Arr. for Guitar): III. Siciliana (04:07)
10. Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 (Arr. for Guitar): IV. Presto (02:56)
11. Johannespassion, BWV 245: No. 14, Petrus, der nicht denkt zur”uck (Arr. for Guitar) (00:55)
12. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): I. Prelude (05:14)
13. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): II. Allemande (05:15)
14. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): III. Courante (02:37)
15. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): IV. Sarabande (03:33)
16. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): V. Gavottes I & II (02:55)
17. Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 (Arr. for Guitar): VI. Gigue (03:00)
18. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60: No. 5, Es ist genug (Arr. for Guitar) (01:28)
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