Orchestral transcriptions of Bach's organ works by Andrew Davis

If I were to make a list of recordings to be filed under the heading of "guilty pleasures", one of them would surely be the late Andrew Davis's 2016 recording of Handel's Messiah, billed somewhat unassumingly on the album cover simply as a 'New Concert Edition', but which actually amounted to a decidedly modern re-orchestration of the entire oratorio, with alto flute, cor anglais, and trombones sitting alongside some distinctly un-Handelian percussion additions such as side drum, cymbals, marimba, and tambourine. Although far from 'authentic' (not that it needed or claimed to be!), it was enormous fun to listen to.

As it turns out, this wasn't the conductor's only foray into matters of orchestration. As organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge in the 1960s, Davis naturally gained a life-long love of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and when looking for a work to perform by the composer in a concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 2003, he decided to make his own orchestration of the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582.

Twenty years later he orchestrated several more of Bach's organ works, four of which he recorded with the BBC Philharmonic in November 2023. Sadly, Davis died from leukaemia before he could complete the album, but fortunately Martyn Brabbins stepped in to conduct the remaining seven arrangements with the same orchestra last September.

When it comes to orchestral transcriptions of Bach's organ music, the best-known of all must undoubtedly be Leopold Stokowski's arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV565 (familiar to Disney lovers from the 1940 film, Fantasia). For his own version of the same piece, Davis seems determined to be the anti-Stokowski, deliberately attempting to avoid comparison by doing almost the exact opposite (in Davis's own words, "anything less like Stokowski is hard to imagine!"). Whereas Stokowski employs sombre, dramatic strings for the famous opening gestures, Davis (whilst retaining the use of strings) opts for a tongue-in-cheek contrast by way of the delicate tinkle of the glockenspiel, with staccato notes at the ends of phrases that are the very antithesis of pomposity. Such relative levity makes the subsequent imposing entry of the trombones all the more impactful.

Countless similar examples of Davis's fertile imagination abound throughout the album: much as in Messiah, he makes judicious use of various percussion instruments to colour the sound, whilst his deployment of solo strings in the fugue from BWV565 and Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend, BWV655 makes those pieces sound like movements from a lost Brandenburg Concerto.

I hope by dwelling on the intricacies of Davis's orchestrations that I haven't short-changed the vital contribution of the BBC Philharmonic, who under both conductors respond to every detail with brilliance and virtuosity, whether it be the luxurious sonorities of the clarinet choir in the second fugue from the 'St Anne' Prelude and Fugue, BWV552 or the graceful charm of solo flute and oboe in Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV731.

A few of his orchestrations forgo violins, allowing the richness of the lower strings to be heard most beautifully, especially in the chorale prelude Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV727 (where Davis colours their sound with bassoons, bass clarinet, and even contrabass clarinet). Sitting on top of this, the melody is given to a solo flugelhorn, whose mellifluous, sweet tone eloquently conjures the melancholic sound of its cousin the cornet from the world of Salvation Army brass bands.

Speaking of not involving violins, in Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645, Davis does manage to slip in a witty in-joke. Often known in English as 'Sleepers Wake!', the title refers to the parable of bridesmaids at a wedding, some of whom are chided for not providing themselves with enough oil for their lamps while they await the arrival of the bridegroom. Davis cheekily alludes to this cautionary tale by forcing the violins to sit through much of the piece's four-minute duration without playing anything, keeping them in reserve until the final fifteen seconds! (To be fair, he does attempt to avoid testing their patience too much by adding a footnote in the score suggesting that their presence for this piece is entirely optional...).

Writing about his arrangement of Messiah, Davis commented that "everything I have done instrumentally stems from the enormous respect, even awe, which I feel towards this supreme masterpiece", and it's abundantly clear that the same level of appreciation and esteem exists for these great organ works by Bach. The key principle behind all of Davis's choices lies in illuminating the majesty of Bach's music, and indeed the entire album makes for a fitting tribute to not only a fine conductor but also a master orchestrator.