Bach, continued

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:01 pm

If you didn't find this one, back when we were looking at Jean Rondeau, here's four minutes of heaven. This instrument has (or has been recorded to showcase) an excellent lower end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcODeWdFVuY

Here Mr Rondeau has occasional trouble coordinating right and left hands; I'm going to suggest a slightly cranky ancient instrument is the culprit---but who knows...

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:01 pm

...followed by Joe Bonamassa playing the blues, recorded live, on PBS-TV...

Oh, yes...

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 9:40 pm

Christmas in July:

Here's Bach at a high moment, a Cantata comprising pieces from the B Minor Mass, heard and seen in a performance by the superb Netherlands Bach Society
... with as large an orchestra as I've seen under director Van Veldhoven: Tympani, three trumpets, fine and faultless singers (a mere dozen voices). Some pretty
refined dynamics, perfect tempi. Studio-perfect performances from these folks, before live audiences (is that a redundancy ?). I'll leave it to others to analyze the
sound recording; I'm not listening on big speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkx1vgl7RbU

The director's commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkx1vgl7RbU

Have a fine Saturday night and/or Sunday morning !

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:05 pm

Not modern enough for you ?

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EwuuvsSMS0

Madness ! (Sorry about the commercial interruptions ...)

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:38 pm

Bach is my Wright. But there are others, of course, related and worthy; there's Handel, and Vivaldi and Corelli and Scarlatti and . . . just as there is Griffin, and Makintosh and the Greenes (and Green and Howe and Jones and . . .)

So, this series, playing on PBS this year, is called "Now Hear This." Let's start with Handel---and see Baroque architecture, painting, couture, cuisine---and other accompaniments to excellent music-making:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/now-hear- ... ode/10091/

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:07 pm

Mr Sato playing a complex Bach Partita---one new to me, after all these years---like a madman; solidly, lucidly, and with no apparent self-indulgence at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6lmRD4FgKQ

Like the reading of music itself, the manipulation of the violin and its siblings remains a miracle and a mystery to me---suitable, I suppose, to the subject, this almost unearthly early music ?

S

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:14 am

A 1684 Kleynman! Peter, is that a 1684 bow, as well?

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:17 pm

SDR- What a superb performance of the Partita!

Roderick- That is definitely a baroque style bow, pre-Tourte (the inventor of the modern bow, 1780): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Tourte
More early violins survived than their bows. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s possible that it is a contemporary copy of an early bow.

Even though the Dutch Kleynman violin is from 1684, it was a copy of an Italian violin by Amati, who influenced Stradivari.

This video by Henrietta Wayne helps us understand the evolution of the violin bow from the 1500s. Notice that she uses no chin rest (neither does Sato for his Bach) and places her chin on the right side as opposed to the Ã¢â‚¬Å“modernÃ¢â‚¬Â� method on the left side with a carved chin rest.

https://youtu.be/uU48vc25vF0

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 24, 2019 6:34 pm

Another cantata from the Netherlands Bach Society.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUVwYQCwYKc

If you don't care for alto Damien Guillon, wait for soprano Maria Keohane.

Concertmaster Sato is superb and restrained, his improvisations at the end of Keohane's turn more convincing than intrusive, for once.

Each of these videos is accompanied by a short text; here's the one for this cantata:

The only parts that Bach definitely wrote especially for 'Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille', performed by the Netherlands Bach Society for All of Bach, are
the recitatives and the final chorale of the piece. Although the opening aria and the ensuing chorus for a large group of musicians to the words Ã¢â‚¬ËœRejoice,
you joyful voicesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ correspond closely to the text, Bach initially did not compose them for these words. The latter and other remaining parts were
borrowed from his earlier pieces.

Recorded for the project All of Bach on March 15th 2014 at St Martin's Church, Groningen. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please
subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating http://bit.ly/2uZuMj5.

For the interview with countertenor Damien Guillon on 'Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille' go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvHK...
For the interview with conductor Jos van Veldhoven on BWV 120 go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByoTV...
For the interview with trumpet player Robert Vanryne on BWV 120 go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CqeF...
For more information on BWV 120 and this production go to http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-120/

All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society / Nederlandse Bachvereniging, offering high-quality film recordings of the works by Johann
Sebastian Bach, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society and her guest musicians. Visit our free online treasury for more videos and background
material http://allofbach.com/en/. For concert dates and further information go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/nederla....

Netherlands Bach Society
Jos van Veldhoven, conductor
Maria Keohane, soprano
Damien Guillon, alto
Valerio Contaldo, tenor
Lionel Meunier, bass

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 24, 2019 7:05 pm

And if you want more---it's never too late in the year for the Easter Oratorio !

From the same source, with some of the same personnel, including the three mentioned above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62fawgUUpg8

And, an early cantata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtAvqH_A9k

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Nov 25, 2019 7:05 pm

Only have four minutes ? Take this one . . . if I haven't already led you here. The opening chorus is all you need---though don't let me keep you from the rest . . .!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwXlEcnXKI

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:12 pm

Peter, can you describe what pleases a performer, as for instance the instrumentalists seen in some of these Cantatas, when he or she lifts delicately
off the final note of a movement---and holds position for several seconds, before lowering the hands, or the instrument ?

What does this practice add; what function or desire is satisfied by the ritual observance of this move . . .

I can imagine that, for one thing, the dying sound is heard and respected---both for the performer and for the audience. What else---or what more, can
you suggest ?

S

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sun Dec 01, 2019 12:04 pm

It is a follow-through, like a golfer teeing off.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Dec 01, 2019 4:55 pm

Do you play, Roderick ? In an alternate universe I am a demon keyboardist; in this one I merely listen, watch, and enjoy.

S

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 12:23 pm

As a child, I took lessons on the piano and violin. Unfortunately I have the hands of a laborer. I might have made a good mason, but I lack dexterity, so my pianistic/violinistic ambitions were cut short. But I sang.