Harvey Valdes – Novare: J.S. Bach Lute Works on Electric Guitar (Destiny Records, 2022)
Acclaimed guitarist and composer Harvey Valdes has skillfully and lovingly recreated Johann Sebastian Bach’s lute works on the electric guitar. The album features masterful and exquisite performances of well-known classics that are regularly presented by classical music lutenists and guitarists. However, these masterful pieces are now available on steel-string electric guitar.
Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein, renowned for her performances of Bach pieces on the modern grand piano, says: “Harvey Valdes brings an improviser’s sensibility to this music, which is in so many ways the most authentic approach to Bach. There is an understated quality to his interpretations that allows a listener to hear the architecture of the music, and there is a rhythmic malleability that gives breath and presence. The Prelude and Fugue in D-flat stands out in the way that Valdes enjoys the sustained possibilities of the electric guitar. It’s a beautiful new take on old gems.”
Harvey explains why he plays Bach on electric guitar: “Why not?! The electric guitar has a capacity for tone, color and dynamics that moves beyond what the acoustic classical guitar can do. There have been some past recordings of electric guitarists who have played Bach or works by Mozart, Beethoven, etc. These often feature the instrument using high gain and distorted sounds with fast virtuosic playing. I respect this approach, but it’s not the one I wanted to take. I was interested in honoring some of the delicate classical guitar approaches and while also taking advantage of the sonic dimensions of the electric guitar.
“For listeners who are guitar players, I want to share with them how it’s possible to play Bach’s lute works on an electric guitar. You can bring a classical guitar approach to the electric guitar that expands the sonic landscape for this historical music and gives it a space to live in the present. As for everyone else, enjoy! I hope it can soothe a listener’s life. Making it certainly brought some peace into my life during a challenging time that has affected us all.”
Release date for the album is April 8, 2022.