SHIFTING GROUND | GRAMOPHONE - REVIEW

gramophone - SHIFTING GROUND REVIEW

by: Andrew Farach-Colton | October 2024

This solo recital is ‘an exploration of how Bach’s influence has rippled through time’, Alexi Kenney writes in a very brief booklet note (the title ‘Shifting Ground’ refers to the ground bass, which the violinist on his website calls ‘the heart of al Baroque music’). It’s a daring and ingenious programme, anchored by excerpts from. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, and culminating with the mighty D minor Chaconne.

Kenney’s Bach is glorious. He spins out phrases in long, supple, silky threads that seem to bind a movement's first note to its last, and yet how much detail he finds along the way. His powerful, characterful gestures convey motion and movement, a reminder of the dance origins of these works, and his ornamentation is exceptionally purposeful and expressive. He brings surprising urgency to the Allemande of the D minor Partita, intense lyricism to the opening Grave of the A minor Sonata and finally in the architectural expanse of the Chaconne he sculpts a seamless arc that takes us from darkness to light and back again.

Woven around these excerpts are an astonishing variety of shorter works, including Kenney’s own arrangements of Schumann’s ‘Widmung’, an elegant and unexpectedly joyful reimagining of Ariana Grande’s pop hit ‘thank u, next’ and a rather free take on Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ that nevertheless remains true to the song’s folk/blues roots.

All but one of the four contemporary compositions involve electronics, In Matthew Burtner’s Elegy, Kenney plays aching, slow-moving tones over sounds of Alaska’s all-too-quickly disappearing Muir Glacier, while Eve Beglarian’s post-minimalist Well-Spent includes a pre-recorded track referencing a tune by bluesman Muddy Waters.

In Hikari Salina Fisher marries Bach, folk fiddling and Vaughan William’s Lark Ascending to create a happy throuple. Finally, the pair of selections by Nicola Matteis father and son deserve mention as both are magical, thanks to Kenney’s quasi-improvisatory aplomb. Conceptual programmes such as this are a dime a dozen nowadays but Kenney’s actually works, with the various musical elements interacting with and illuminating one another. Bravissimo!