Tag: Johann Sebastian Bach
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PROGRAM NOTES: SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF PERFORMS THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
Bach’s Clavier-Übung (1726-1741) The works on this evening’s recital are selected from Bach’s collection of keyboard pieces published in four parts between 1726 and 1741 under the collective title Clavier-Übung (keyboard exercise). In this collection Bach systematically lays out for amateur and professional keyboard-players alike his mastery of the genres, compositional techniques, and national styles…
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PROGRAM NOTES: NICOLAS ALTSTAEDT
Henri Dutilleux Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher Swiss conductor Paul Sacher (1906-1999), founder of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, was an immensely important figure in 20th-century music. With a family fortune based on a controlling share of the Hoffman-LaRoche pharmaceutical empire, he commissioned works from some of the century’s greatest composers. These commissioned works…
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PROGRAM NOTES: EVGENY KISSIN
Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (arr. Tausig) While keyboard transcription and political debate might at first blush seem to be radically different fields of endeavour, one justly famous incident on American television stands emblematic of the risks run, in both disciplines, for those who would engage in rhetorical posturing.…
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PROGRAM NOTES: MILOŠ AND AVI AVITAL
Johann Sebastian Bach English Suite No. 2 in A minor: Prelude | Well-Tempered Clavier 1: Fugue in C minor | Concerto in D minor (after Marcello): Adagio | Partita No. 2 in C minor: Capriccio In Bach’s time, the instrument closest to the sound world of the guitar and mandolin was the lute. Bach wrote…
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PROGRAM NOTES: AUGUSTIN HADELICH
Johann Sebastian Bach Partita No. 3 in E major BWV 1006 If polyphonic music was not meant to be played on the violin, Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t get the e-mail. His Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV 1001-1006 of 1720 reveal clearly the scope of his ambition in this regard. The six works in…
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PROGRAM NOTES: TONY SIQI YUN
Johann Sebastian Bach Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 (arr. Busoni) The 19th century witnessed a revival of interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. But the sound world of the 19th century with its new spacious concert halls and louder, more powerful instruments (played by ego-driven virtuoso performers) flourished at some remove from…
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PROGRAM NOTES: LUCAS & ARTHUR JUSSEN
Johann Sebastian Bach Three Chorale Preludes (arr. György Kurtág) The chorale, a hymn setting of pious verse in simple note values, was a central element in Lutheran liturgical practice, whether sung in unison by the congregation, in four-part harmony by the choir in a cantata, or artfully arranged into a web of contrapuntal lines on…
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PROGRAM NOTES: DANISH STRING QUARTET
Johann Sebastian Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I Fugue No. 16 in G minor BWV 861 (arr. Förster) If you have ever happened to see one of those cooking shows in which a chef is challenged to create an entire meal—appetizer, entrée and dessert—out of a minimum of ingredients (an ox-tail, say, and a banana)…
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PROGRAM NOTES: IGOR LEVIT
Johann Sebastian Bach Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 (arr. Brahms) The Bach revival of the 19th century began with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, conducted by the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. It reached its stride at mid-century with the founding, by Robert Schumann and others, of the Bach-Gesellschaft, a society…
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PROGRAM NOTES: INON BARNATAN
George Frederick Handel Chaconne in G Major While Handel is principally remembered as a composer of operas and oratorios, it was well known to his contemporaries that he possessed major moxy as a keyboard performer, as well. In witness thereof, history records a famous keyboard duel in 1708 between Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, hosted in…