Canadian guitarist Drew Henderson performs Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), originally for unaccompanied violin. This comes via Henderson’s YouTube channel and performed at The Church of St Mary Magdalene, Toronto. Wonderful performance by Henderson with excellent pacing and some very crisp and clear ornaments throughout. One of the best performances of the fugue I’ve heard, balanced and calm but always pushing forward. He mentioned that he’ll have a sheet music edition coming out soon which we can look forward to.
Video Times
- 0:00 Adagio
- 3:35 Fuga
- 8:23 Siciliana
- 11:29 Presto
Below is his comments from his video description:
I’ve gone through a bit of a change in philosophy when it comes to arranging Bach on the guitar, and that is to only add notes when I feel the translation to guitar is lacking. Having said that, this arrangement is fairly true to the original, except when it was irresistible I added the low 7th string to fill out the range.
For those with a keen ear, you will notice this is actually in f# minor, which in Baroque tuning is actually G minor! In reality though, I feel the capo on fret 2 with the low C# on the 7th sounded best on this guitar.
Special thanks to Mark Usherovich for building this very versatile guitar. I love all colours on this spruce and maple guitar (just like a violin). The possibilities for arranging Bach are vast on this instrument, and you’ll be sure to see more. Also thanks to Alex Bougie and Ricci Ebron for assisting in the filming. It’s very hard to film oneself, I couldn’t have done it without them!
Drew is the pre-eminent classical guitarist of this generation.