Bach .... (b a c b-flat)

Johann Sebastian Bach is probably one of my favourite composers of all time... his music sing so fluidly like the meaning of his name, a brook ... and the apparent beauty of the sounds mask the complex harmonies that are interwoven in their different parts, conversing, then in sync, then merging into another theme.... moving from major to minor tones in sublime subtlety.

i often think he must be a genius. and tuesday evening's solo performances by the Capu?on brothers Renaud (violin) and Gautier (cello) at the Usher Hall gave support to my intuitions...

i got acquainted with Bach whilst learning to play the piano.... some many years ago... perhaps the most vivid of the few things i had to learn which were composed by him was the 2-part inventions and the few dabbles i did on my own of his Well-tempered Klavier -- some of which was featured in "The English Patient"... he teases my right-brain (the 'controller' of my left hand) a lot , just like Chopin.... it wasn't until i took up learning a bit of violin in Wales that i then came across more of his works; the violin concertos -- especially those for double violins and the Partitas which Misi (actually, Mihaely; my Hungarian senior) was practicing for his music exams... i don't know what Bach wrote first; whether he did the 2-part inventions for the piano prior to those solo works for strings he wrote as teaching aids, but you hear and see similar trade-marks (double, triple, quadruple stops creating melodious polyphonic sounds) in his compositions for the different instruments... making them seem as though you needed more hands and fingers to create those beautiful sounds... but in fact it's just one hand doing the fingering on the strings and the other bowing.... incredible! he must have really adopted the instruments as part of his physical and mental being to be able to write such amazing works.

the one hour performance opened with the talented 23-year old Gautier, performing the Suite No.6 for Solo Cello in D (BWV 1012) commencing with an attention-grabbing Prelude, followed by a mesmerising Allemande, then onto the familiar Courante, the Sarabande, and two Gavottes, before ending with the Gigue; all dance forms of the european baroque age... except that nobody was dancing... but all sat awestruck by the dazzling performance of what is said to be a techinically challenging piece, which had, in those Baroque days, been originally performed with a special instrument -- viola pomposa -- a cello with an additional string, tuned a fifth higher than the usual top string. as you can imagine, many of the passages had to be played in the 4th positions and there were some really mind-boggling fingerings that the young French executed in his apparent meditative absorption, which just left me flabbergasted...

elder brother Renaud was equally charming with his 1721 Stradivarius rendering flowing reveries of musical imagery as he played the Partita No.2 in D minor for Solo Violin (BWV 1004), which ended with a mesmeric polyphonic Ciaccona. on center-stage, Renaud's silhouette swayed with various passages under the spot-light, appearing as though together in motion, the ideal desired execution could be fully achieved... i have never seen nor heard anyone play with a Strad in a life concert before... and on Tuesday evening i had my first experience of hearing the instrument being played --- the sound reverberating from the f-holes of the skillfully crafted wooden sound box resonated so sweetly under Renaud's bowing... i know that only very few of the very best musicians get to play a Strad... so to be able to enjoy a performance of Bach's music by one of them on a remarkable piece of instrument is especially wonderful...

...bach... the flowing stream of music...

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Thursday, 2 September, 2004 at 18:39 hrs