Recordings

Cabalistic investigations of ostensibly coded aspects of Bach’s music have long been with us, seldom--if ever--producing a purely musical revelation such as the Chaconne-Tombeau recorded here. Based on recent research by musicologist Helga Theone, according to the fanciful booklet notes, this Tombeau was purportedly composed by Bach after the death of his first wife, Maria Barbara. It consists of the received text of the great chaconne from the D-minor Partita, plus two “hidden,” intertwining vocal lines setting an odd, fragmentary variant of the hymn “Christ lag in Todesband-en.” Whether genuine Bach or a musicological experiment, this is a truly inspired flight of fantasy and extrapolation, sung here with heart-stopping purity over the noblest of all possible accompaniments. Moreno plays his stylish adaptations of the Sonata and Partita with great verve and intelligence, but it is the Tombeau that is the ear-opening wonder of the disc.