Something for a Friday: All of Bach

[EdgeleyRob]

"I, poor man, am a Wretched Sinner"/ "a slave to sin" - Bach's only Cantata for solo Tenor, sung here by Thomas Hobbs, with the Netherlands Bach Ensemble conducted by Jos van Veldhoven recorded last October in the Walloon Church, Amsterdam. The text of the Cantata was intended as a commentary on the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew, 18; 21-35).

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-55/

Thanks ferney,this and Andras Schiff's WTC from the Proms have made my Friday

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Fughetta in c minor, BWV 961

Ursula Dütschler plays this 105-second miniature, recorded (at what looks like might be her home) in April this year.

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-961/

(Is it just me, or could this performance be just half a smidgin quicker? More Gigue-like? Seems a little ... err ... well, bland to me. )

[Beresford]

Ursula Dütschler plays this 105-second miniature, recorded (at what looks like might be her home) in April this year.


(Is it just me, or could this performance be just half a smidgin quicker? More Gigue-like? Seems a little ... err ... well, bland to me. )

It would have been different if played more quickly, but not as spacious. I felt very satisfied, musically complete, when it ended.

[Padraig]

2 points from me:

Any quicker and the bit in the middle would be harder to play smoothly;
gigue-like suggests dotted notes and/or a 6/8 rhythm which I think would certainly liven up the piece but would lose the spaciousness referred to.

I felt I could play this if it wasn't too fast!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Any quicker and the bit in the middle would be harder to play smoothly

True - and, if you want smooth, I can see that that would be a problem.

gigue-like suggests dotted notes and/or a 6/8 rhythm

Not for Bach - 12/8 and 12/16 Gigues, without dotted ryhthms are not unknown in his output.

which I think would certainly liven up the piece but would lose the spaciousness referred to.

Again, I concede that this is a problem for those who want "spaciousness" in the piece. For me, it was the very "spaciousness" of the playing here that made the piece feel as if it came to an abrupt end, and felt "unfinished" and anticlimactic. I wanted a livelier pulse to feel that no more was needed.

I felt I could play this if it wasn't too fast!

- but I couldn't play it as I would want to.

All very personal reactions, of course - and, with Beresford, padraig, and Ms Dütschler (and, for all I know, JSB himself) I'm obviously in the minority here.

[EdgeleyRob]

Thanks as ever ferney.
I agree,needs to be a bit 'bouncier'.
Glenn Gould takes 2:25 to play it
I take about 5 mins

[EdgeleyRob]

Von Himmel kam der Engel schar BWV 607

Ferney must be on his jollies....again

A short,sweet and Angelic Organ piece.

Soon be Christmas.

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-607/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ferney must be on his jollies....again

Indeed so - four days sampling the sights, walks and spirits of Edinburgh - including gazing at the rather "not-quite-right" perspective in Pieter Jansz Saeredan's 1648 painting of the interior of none other than St Bevo's Church where this and many other of the AoB organ works have been recorded. (There's also a painting by Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde of the exterior of the church and the surrounding marketplace from 1690 in the next room along.

Many thanks for doing the honours, Edgey. I got back home just in time to hear the last few moments of the Byrd Lamentations (I didn't know he'd written any settings! ) - and have just sorted out 90 e-Mails (in five days!!!) - mostly wanting my money, my signature, or both. Catching up on the Forum, now - and the Bach was brief bliss.

[Padraig]

I enjoyed this organ piece.
Anything with a 'Christmas' connection gets my attention. Obviously Bach has a soft spot too and gets it spot on.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043

It's Christmas every day with Bach, Padraig! (Absolutely Wizzard!) Hope your computer can receive this week's fourteen-minute video - which is one of my top 1080 pieces by this composer. Good performance, too (recorded 364 days ago) - a little different from how I think of the work, but all the more welcome for that: I like the way the two soloists present the Music with different articulations in their first "solo" passage (rather than exact imitations) and whilst the speed for the middle movement loses some of the eroticism I so love in the work, it doesn't half work wonderfully in its own terms (although, if soloist Emily Deans does think that this movement is "the best eight minutes of Music ever" - as she is quoted as saying in the accompanying programme notes - it's strange that she takes only six minutes to play it here!). Good, dramatic and characterful playing in the Finale, too.

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-1043/

[Padraig]

It's Christmas every day with Bach, Padraig! (Absolutely Wizzard!)

I know that, fhg.

As expected I'm locked out of the video. I miss those performances. I'm playing my David and Igor Oistrakh CD - the first LP of the work that I bought back then. For your interest the Largo takes 7'32. When I was a callow youth 'erotic' was not a word that tripped off my tongue, and my teacher at that time got quite tongue-tied while trying to get us to appreciate the beauty of Keats's poetry. In short, I adopted the word 'sensuous' rather than 'sensual' or 'erotic' as a result. The old guilt thing, fhg, never quite disappears.

Nevertheless, Let the bells ring out for Christmas!

[EdgeleyRob]

Belated thanks ferney.
Padraig it's a shame that you are having trouble with these videos.
I also listened to David Oistrakh but with Menuhin (1958),a very different kind of performance to that from the AoB,but equally mesmerising

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Interestingly, Oistrach and Menuhin take the slow movement at a speed that matches the "eight minutes" that Ms Deans mentions. Just as interesting, my favourite non-HIPP recording (Menuhin and Enescu in the 1930s) play the Music at almost exactly the same tempo as the AoB video. Just goes to show ... (I'm not sure what, but it does).

I think that if - when they finally take me away from my CD collection and put me in the Attended Waiting Room - I'm only allowed one piece of orchestral Music by Bach, I'd spend a lot of time dithering between this Double Concerto, and the Sixth of the "Brandenburgs".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

French Suite in D minor, BWV 812

Staying in D minor for another quarter-hour this week, too. Francesco Corti recorded earlier this year in the Bartolotti House, Amsterdam.

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-812/

(As for the Bartolotti House itself:

http://www.amsterdamsights.com/attractions/bartolotti-house.html

[EdgeleyRob]

Staying in D minor for another quarter-hour this week, too. Francesco Corti recorded earlier this year in the Bartolotti House, Amsterdam.

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-812/

(As for the Bartolotti House itself:

http://www.amsterdamsights.com/attra...tti-house.html

Thanks ferney.

Wonderful interview,"You can't possibly get fed up with Bach",like it.