B-A-C-H (New better vantage point of the 811 concert)

[furtwaengler]

[UPDATE: I finally found place to listen to the recording the Cellist's husband made with his Sony thing and external microphone. He was recording in the very back of the hall, where Rachfan and I have discussed in other threads as not the best position to record this room. He was also extra cautious because of the peaks in the recording his first attempt recording us a few years earlier, so I was surprised upon sticking the CD in my car that the recording was nearly inaudible. I amplified it to a more comfortable level using Audacity. This brought the noise up as well, but it's still incomparably better then the recording from my pocket. I cannot allow myself to upload the Courante and Gavottes for the more series blunders afflict - I was not ready to play this piece. Ode to short deadlines... I will now, however, upload the other dances I did not earlier upload, warts and all. Playing something like this live, so young in the experience of it produces a natural improvisational spontaneity, revealing a sense of discovery all brought on by the combined fears and lack of emotional control in the moment. This can be good and it can be bad, and you'll find both good and bad in this particular situation. A lot of the flow and rubato (as well as dynamics and voicings) were not at all planned as they happened, but I was being pushed and pulled along by a lack of emotional control in the moment. One off performances...I need to play this again somewhere! But I think it is good and enlightening to have record of such things - it's always unique!]

Today I played an all Bach recital with a cellist, who also teaches preschool and had a lot of her children and their parents in the audience. The program was the G major Cello Suite BWV 1007, the G minor Viola da Gamba sonata BWV 1029, and the D minor English Suite BWV 811. This was some scary fun, and educational in nature. The Cellist Nancy had quite a few words to say about Bach and the importance of exposing children to Bach. Before (trying to play) playing the English Suite (What an intro to Bach!) I explained Bach's signing his name into the music in the wild ending gigue, B (B-flat)-A (A)-C (C)-H (B), and asked them to see if they could pick it out. I was told by several people that could hear the B-A-C-H loud and clear. Did I go overboard?


(Apologies for sound...I puts a voice recorder in me coat pocket, rolling the duration of the concert.)

 

[birba]

Wow.  This suite is like the most difficult of the set.  Bravo!  Did you play the whole thing?  I hope you played them the gavotte, at least!  Maybe a little more enjoyable for untrained ears!   

[furtwaengler]

Oh yes, I did play the whole thing. In fact, here is the Prelude. I shall post no more! Too much allowance. Besides...spontaneity abounded, voices that don't exist (which you can hear here), no repeats on the Allemande (played achingly slow, though I like that) for I was going to take it easy on the kids, and that all fell through for attempting to "fix" blunders by observing all other repeats. I'm many times playing pieces once for this or that and not returning, but my work on 811 is very young, and I plan on looking for for other opportunities to perform it. I'm very into Bach at the moment, never having performed so much.  

[Recording removed - see above]

[rachfan]

That was fantastic playing!  Congratulations on your fine performance.  The thing I liked most about your playing of Bach was that it was always expressive.  I don't believe for a moment that Bach ever intended his music to sound dull, sterile and lifeless.  Bach did play the earliest pianos, but they were not yet perfected so made little impression on him.  If he had the benefit in his day of playing a Steinway Model D, I believe he would have been enthralled by its possibilities.  Likewise, if he could come back to visit with us now, he would expect performers of his music to use the full resources of the modern grand piano to bring his music to life, which is exactly what you did in your recital.  Bravo!

David

[birba]

Your performance would probably raise a few purists' eyebrows, and there were some things that I might have done in a different way regarding touch, but there's no denying that you know and love this piece through and through.  I think this is one of Bach's masterpieces for the keyboard.  Your conception is absolutely coherent and cohesive - everything makes sense.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

[furtwaengler]

David,

Thanks so much. Your words are so nice and so encouraging. I can only wish I was more deserving of your kindness.

Dave

[furtwaengler]

Your performance would probably raise a few purists' eyebrows, and there were some things that I might have done in a different way regarding touch, but there's no denying that you know and love this piece through and through.  I think this is one of Bach's masterpieces for the keyboard.  Your conception is absolutely coherent and cohesive - everything makes sense.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thanks Birba. I'll agree it's a masterpiece, and I'm pleased that you find coherence and cohesion - I can say it is not without success. I wish I had not fallen on my face in the rest of the piece, then I'd post more of it. Bach is difficult...my understatement of the moment!

I am not out to raise eyebrows. It could be considered a failing to some that I've not denied my own artistic personality, but I do have a way of "reciting" which changes when I know I'm communicating...the element of an audience, or people I'm reciting too changes everything for me. I've experienced the same thing reading texts, such as bible readings. I read Paul's letter to the Ephesians to a group of about 30 people, and noticed a great difference in emphasis, in pacing, in diction compared with my personal readings. It brought to mind a particular expression in Nehemiah, "They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading." The sense and emphasis may change according to who you're reading too, and this is a fair parallel to what often happens to me in live performance. I'm not often prepared for how this will change, except I know it's more concentrated. I've had many a moment that I was as just another surprised figure in the audience, though it's my hands on the keys. Can you relate to that?

I have a special place in my heart for the purist in the integrity of his commitment. I've simply not gotten over myself. 

Dave

[birba]

You made an extremely interesting point.  The fact of changing your interpretation or emphasis regarding the audience.  I had never thought of that.  I'm trying to think if that ever happened to me - maybe a certain audience might influence me and my playing positively or negatively, and this is definitely NOT a good thing - but making a certain statement, so to speak,  to reach a particular audience.  wow.  You got me going...

[emill]

Hi Dave! 

You play Bach with sureness and confidence and I liked what I heard,
except perhaps the quality of the recording. .. but putting a recorder in
your pocket is indeed innovative...hehhe

Please forgive my audaciousness in trying to scrub your 
recording.  I think it sounds better (especially the prelude). 
Best wishes..

emill

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for the help, Emill! There was actually someone else in the audience that recorded this concert with a mic on a sony device. I've not heard that recording though. It was the same device that recorded the Beethoven op. 111 from 2007, except at that time they had just bought the device and did not know how to use it, hence the peaking and artificial effect of the built in peak protection - I had to decrease the volume before I could think of sharing that. Also the Beethoven was recorded with the internal mics, and on the first row of the auditorium. I have a feeling their recording of this Bach concert with the added experience and external mic, and placement out in the hall produced a much better recording.

This aside I'll have to decide whether or not I'll share any of it, just because my relationship with the performance has really gone cold, to the point I wish I had not performed the Suite in that circumstance - except, I like the gigue. We'll see.

[furtwaengler]

See the first post above. I have added the better recording of the same concert.

[Goodness...had to resample - not sure what that does to a recording - in order to get a bit rate low enough to fit this within the size limit of a single post! We're good now!]

[pianowolfi]

I really love your Bach playing! There is so much passion, love and enthousiasm in it! It's very touching. A strong voice! Well, I've tried to say more about it and tried to edit my post several times, but I can't and I hope these few words are enough to sum it up. It's something strong and something special! You are indeed very gifted! Not only manually, but also gifted to dive right through into the essence of a specifical musical work. A strong mind, as well

[furtwaengler]

Thank you very much, Wolfi. You mean so much! 

[m1469]

Bach is difficult...

Hi Dave, I am listening now as I type.  So far I am just in the Prelude, but I will listen to all of it.  Okay, I stopped typing anything and just only listened to the closings of the Prelude and now I am onto the Allemande.  I can right off appreciate your fire and the sense of spontaneity .  

I quoted what I did of you because that's exactly what I had thought I wanted to nearly start my post with.  Fire, passion, serenity, singing lines, vocal and animation characteristics, spirituality, compositional architecture, balance between hands and between separate voices, tonal considerations, pedaling ... of course, through words this doesn't convey how Bach's music is "different" than somebody like Chopin's, for example, but obviously the way a performer needs to consider these elements between those is very different.  I am by no means a Bach expert, but I certainly appreciate Bach and have always had a high regard for his music.  Right now as I type this, I am just recalling the various ways in which I have thought about Bach's music over the years, and those ways compared to what I think now.  I think that out of all composers, in some ways Bach's music has the largest fluctuation in opinions regarding how to interpret his music and each of those opinions being fairly strongly minded.  

I think that Bach's music was composed with great conviction, and I equally think that the greatest interpretors of Bach are those who end up interpreting with great conviction, as well.  At this point in my life, I definitely appreciate a particular sort of tone and a performer's ability to let whatever is "luscious" about Bach's writing to be the music itself and not just a performer's particular personal indulgences.  I think you do that well in that you allow the intricacies of the voices being layered with each other be the factor which creates a richer overall harmonic tone (rather than automatically going for the pedal).  I do hear conviction in your playing and I feel like it could be even more.  

Listening to this makes me want to revive the Prelude and Fugue in g minor from book I, which was my last formal attempt at Bach.  I don't know if it would be within the next few months or not.  But, I'll give it a little try and see what happens .

Thanks for posting this and for the inspiration!

[furtwaengler]

I enjoyed reading that, m1469, and indeed the thought of you adding another piece to your ever growing list of music did add to my joy. I am a person who believes you should play what inspires when it inspires...as dangerous a thought as that may be...as incomplete as that may be. But I'm not really a musician as much as I am an explorer of all kinds of different worlds. That people let me play is one of life's thrills.

I see Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso on your list, and I realize two things. First is the unique relationship I have with Mendelssohn, which is often hidden in the course all that amazes me. Mendelssohn and Handel hit something so deep in me...the two in the very same way hit this spot. My relationship is predominantly established in the two trios and Elijah, which was the first major work I was a part of preparing in my current job. But there was one night..just one night that I can remember being obsessed with the Rondo Capriccioso, that is obsessed with creating a very certain sound for which I strove for in the AM's of that night. Also I think I achieved it....but that was 7 or 8 years ago, and a very difficult time. I have not visited the piece in any way since then. Also, I really don't know what that sound was like except that I strove for it. Just seeing it on your list conjures up such extraordinary memories of the time, and I find a need to visit the piece again to try to fill in some of those gaps - don't be surprised if I go bad and record it pretty soon. (Well that was a really long "first" thing). The second thing I realizes, is that I really, really, really want to hear you play this Rondo Capriccioso. With your "voice at the piano," the level of intense focus and detail which has been a marvel to many of us for years on this site, I have no doubt that you would have an extraordinary vision of this piece. And. I. Want. To. Hear. It. 

Dave

[m1469]

I see Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso on your list (...) And. I. Want. To. Hear. It.  

Dave

Well, I'm of course very happy if you feel that way .  But, let me tell you a little secret, part of how that list in my signature functions is to simply remind me every, single time that I'm here, that I've got *hoards* of work to do at the instrument!  So, with that out of the way, I don't foresee myself posting the Rondo Cappriccioso much sooner than at least a month!  Hopefully you would still be interested to hear it by then .