Eduardo Fernández transforms Bach’s lute suites into guitar music that is thoroughly idiomatic, stylistically sound, and expressive to the last drop. What’s more, Fernández’s astounding technique features a wide array of colors and articulations that enhance the music’s variety and accentuate its roots in dance. In the E minor Suite’s Bourrée (BWV 996), hear how Fernández deftly shapes the bass line against the famous melody, or the discreet distensions that prevent the Second Suite’s long fugue from wandering off course. No matter how rapid the figurations, they never sound notey under Fernández’s pliable, intelligent hands. Repeats are imaginatively and unobtrusively ornamented. While the third suite derives from the Fifth Unaccompanied Cello Suite, it loses nothing in its plucked translation. Ditto for the Fourth Suite: a softer-grained recasting of the brilliant E major Violin Partita. Among the many fine Bach guitar discs on the market, this wonderful release takes top honors. It’s beautifully recorded and inexpensive, too.
