Playing with Bach

laying JS Bach on the piano has sometimes been frowned on by purists, although Bach was familiar with the instrument. Pianist Stephen De Pledge, introducing his project , suggests that performing Bach on a modern grand piano is like BWV 827. Scheduled for broadcast this Saturday, de Pledge’s performance of his expanded places each new composition aft er the movement that inspired it. A pianist with a special feeling for Bach’s music, he approaches the seven original movements with marvellous understatement and an unfailing sense of Bach’s line, shape, counterpoint and architecture. The short new compositions vary widely in style. The response to Bach’s opening by Leonie Holmes is a more expansive, virtuosic fantasy, her lovely harmonies in conversation with Bach’s. Chris Gendall’s is a less tonal response to the original , with Bach’s ghostly presence slipping tantalisingly between pianistic flourishes. De Pledge describes Bach’s central as the “emotional heart” of the work. Before playing it with thoughtful gravity, he tosses off with bouncing ease both Bach’s rapid and Christopher Norton’s equally speedy little jazzy number. Alex Taylor calls his own sarabande . Explosive flourishes interrupt contemplative static sections, with the piece showing a fine understanding of piano sonority.