Emmanuel Despax / Johann Sebastian Bach - Spira, Spera

Emmanuel Despax returns to Signum with a disc of JS Bach transcriptions. The title quotes Victor Hugo's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' ("Breathe, Hope"), brought to Despax's mind following the news of the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral, where he had attended many concerts of Bach's music as a child. Despax describes Bach's music as being "of such clarity, coherence and expressive power, that it is able to transcend its original medium, and to some extent, style."

This virtuosic programme combines both well-known transcriptions, such as the mighty Bach-Busoni 'Chaconne' and Saint-Saën's 'Overture', with the first recordings of several arrangements by the late 19th/early 20th century pianist Theodor Szántó's - featuring his monumental and uncompromising transcriptions of the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, and the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

World premiere recordings of several Szanto Bach transcriptions.

Liner notes translated into both English and French.