B.A.C.H.

“My relationship with Bach’s music has always felt whole—when I was young, it was like musical nourishment for my practice,” Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst tells Apple Music Classical. “Instead of playing studies, I played the solo sonatas for violin and the cello suites. It was, in every way, a joy for me as a student to be part of this repertoire.” Bach never wrote for the clarinet (it had been invented in his lifetime, but was still very much in its infancy), but the modern instrument’s liquid tones, emotional depths and impish humour prove perfect for the Baroque German composer’s music. In B.A.C.H., Fröst takes a wide selection of keyboard and organ works, liturgical arias and orchestral movements, and with the help of friends and family shines a new light on them with imaginative, often surprising, yet always beautiful new arrangements. The “Aria” from the Goldberg Variations, for instance, is stripped back to basics, Fröst’s soaring clarinet underpinned by Sebastien Dubé’s plucked double bass. For the Sinfonia in G Major that follows, Fröst plays both upper parts himself, alongside cellist Anastasia Kobekina who provides the scampering bass. It was, he says, an unexpected challenge. “Multitrack recording was completely new to me,” he admits, “and I had to stay very focused to feel where I was going. It wasn’t as easy to play together with myself as I thought.” Fröst is joined in several arrangements Jonas Nordberg, whose theorbo adds a gentle undercurrent to, among other pieces, the “Sarabande” from the French Suite No. 5 and the pleading “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”, and for a pair of two-part Inventions Fröst’s viola-playing brother, Göran, proves a nimble partner. The final track is something of a bonus: in the “Largo” from the Harpsichord Concerto No. 5, Fröst is joined by ABBA’s Benny Andersson, whose bright-toned piano and more informal, pop-like approach brings a different but equally appealing kind of sweetness to Bach’s music.