Concert Review: Because It's There

Kyung-Wha Chung plays Bach.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mountan ear: Kyung-Wha Chung and friend.
Photo from ICA courtesy International Classical Artists.

When Johann Sebastian Bach, a superb violinist, wrote the six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, he intended for these works to be an instructional tool, a manual to challenge students and further their abilities on the stringed instrument. It was not until the 19th century (when the works were first published) and the rise of the string virtuoso that playing all six works, in a public recital became a challenge that appealed to every violinist looking to establish or further their reputation.

The Superconductor Interview: Michelle Ross

The violinist has the keys to Bach's solo repertory for her instrument.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Violinist Michelle Ross.
Photo © The Juilliard School.

"There are so many ways in to this music." Violinist Michelle Ross is speaking of the height of the repertory for her instruments: the six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. She last played these works on December 27th in a complete cycle. On Sunday at Le Poisson Rouge, she will offer Discovering Bach, interspersing movements from the six with pieces from Messiaen and Ravel.

Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach Returned to Alleyway

The unloved last son of Johann Sebastian Bach gets dumped again.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach restored to its rightful place of honor.
Original image © 1978 Vanguard Records.

A portrait of the German wastrel and composer P.D.Q. Bach has returned from whence it came, to the alley behind a Leipzig eatery two streets up from the Thomaskirsche. No members of the press were present at the ceremony, which was conducted by two Leipzig garbagemen, Franz Schutzenschütz and Dieter Dietermeyer.

Concert Review: Everest, Part One

Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Photo by Felix Broede for Deutsche Grammophon/UMG.

If the modern piano recital can be equated to the climbing of mountains, then Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (Clavier simply means "keyboard") represents one of the steepest, highest and most dangerous slopes of all. For Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the iconoclastic French pianist whose mentors included Pierre Boulez, Thursday night's performance of Book I of this massive keyboard work at Carnegie Hall was the equivalent of a climb up Everest--without oxygen or Sherpa guides.

The Superconductor Interview: Thomas Crawford

The conductor of the American Classical Orchestra takes on Bach's Mass in B Minor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Left: conductor Thomas Crawford. Right: Johann Sebastian Bach.
The conductor performs Bach's Mass in B Minor on Nov. 15.

Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor is one of the great choral epics, a setting of the full Catholic mass by this Lutheran composer. It is also a textually troubled work, written over a long period of the composer's life and never performed by Bach himself. For Thomas Crawford, music director of the American Classical Orchestra, taking on Bach's monumental Mass is the achievement of a lifetime. Conductor and ensemble will perform the work on November 15 at Alice Tully Hall.

Concert Review: The Breadth of God

The New York Philharmonic plays Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee © 2013 The New York Philharmonic.

On Wednesday night, New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert demonstrated that his skill with dramatic and choral music extends to the sacred music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This was the first of four performances this week of the Mass in B Minor, Bach’s final completed composition and the summit of his career as a creator of sacred music. These concerts are the anchor event of the orchestra’s ongoing festival, The Bach Variations.

The Rosalyn Tureck Confession

What a missing CD cover taught me about Bach.
by Paul Pelkonen

The missing Rosalyn Tureck album cover. I still don't have it!

Today is the 327th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. To celebrate, it's time to take a look at some of the recordings of Rosalyn Tureck.

Born in Chicago in 1914, Dr. Tureck was a pianist who devoted extraordinary keyboard gifts to the interpretation of Bach. Her recordings of the Goldberg Variations, Keyboard Partitas and the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier are touchstones, revered by collectors and by pianists like Glenn Gould. She died in New York at the age of 88.

I first encountered Ms. Tureck's playing in 1999, when Deutsche Grammophon sent me the 4-disc set of her recordings of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier. I well remember putting the first disc into the drive of my office tower computer, putting on the big noise-blocking headphones...and hating it.

The familiar C Major Prelude of Book I was taken at a maddening, slow pace, the notes seeming to sleep-walk out of the speakers in hissy mono sound. The whole piece was a minute slower than other recordings, like Chinese water torture.

I kept listening. Some of the later Preludes and Fugues were still slow to me. My inner Bach metronome was used to the "Gould" approach to tempo. I didn't really appreciate the beauty of her approach to this music. After writing a mumbling, middling review for the website I was working for, I put the recordings aside, going back to Glenn Gould and Andràs Schiff, another pianist who remains a favorite today.

Later, I wanted to get rid of that set, to send it out into the world of used CDs where music journalists often trade in their acquisitions for a bit of ready cash. But I didn't, mostly because the producer at that website had lost the front-cover label insert, making the set worthless to a dealer.

Reluctantly, I kept it. The set sat on my shelf for years, wedged between the big Sony Glenn Gould "Original Jackets" box and Mr. Schiff's orange box of Bach for Decca. It stayed silent in its case for over a decade. When I did "Project Upload" (moving many recordings of mine into hard drives and iPods) it was left out.

With the Bach birthday this week, I took out that Tureck boxed set, as well as recordings of the Partitas and Goldberg Variations that I'd acquired as part of the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series.

I uploaded all eight discs of Ms. Tureck's recordings that I had. I transferred them into my iPhone. Now, her approach to these short pieces not only felt right, but were extraordinary in their beauty. The piano works seemed thoughtful, beautifully paced and carefully measured. Ms. Tureck's playing hadn't changed.

I had grown up.

Concert Review: Mozart Goes Last, But Comes First

Mostly Mozart, with Joshua Bell at Avery Fisher Hall.

Violinist Joshua Bell, and four-stringed friend. Photo courtesy Lincoln Center.

Friday night's Mostly Mozart concert at Avery Fisher Hall featured a conservative, crowd-pleasing program of Mozart, Bruch and Bach under the baton of fiery young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. Mr. Heras-Casado was joined by soloist Joshua Bell, playing Bruch's First Violin Concerto.

Let me preface the review proper by stating that this was the first Mostly Mozart concert that I've seen at Avery Fisher Hall in over a decade. So it was news to me that in 2005, the Festival installed an acoustic modification, moving the orchestra to an extended stage closer to the center of the room. Extra lighting and seats were added to accomodate the change, shortening the sloped orchestra seating. Seating risers were added behind the ensemble, and to the sides.


The changes also include a new overhead lighting rig, with sonic baffles designed to make the sound bloom in the Hall's problematic acoustic. Although I did not detect any immediate sonic improvement, the packed audience seemed eager to have the musicians closer and at their center for the performance.

The concert opened with Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 4, billed here on the program under its French title: Overture No. 4. The Mostly Mozart musicians played this work standing up, in the Italian style that is increasingly fashionable for 18th century music. But the first movement was problematic, with muddled entrances and blurry chords when Bach's notes should sound sharp-creased. The later parts of the Suite were better, and the orchestra recovered form with a strong Réjouissance..

Bruch wrote three concertos for the violin, but the First is the one that most violinists master and make a centerpiece of their touring repertory. Mr. Bell played an exciting, crowd-pleasing performance, soaring through the lyric runs and arpeggios and duelling playfully with the principal strings of the Festival Orchestra. In the last movement, he led the folk dance (which progresses from friendly to frenetic) with skilful string technique and exciting cadenzas.

The best music-making of the evening came with the Mozart Symphony No. 40 in g minor. This is Mozart's penultimate symphony. It is among his most famous works, and looks forward to the future of music in the 19th century. The last movement has two themes that are quoted by Beethoven in the Eroica Symphony.

Here, it was led in a potent, authoritative performance by Mr. Heras-Casado. Working without a baton, the young conductor seemed to ride on Mozart's great waves of sound. His conducting brought out the subtle secondary themes of the first movement, and the elegance of the minuet. The sudden starts and stops of the finale seemed to have extra force as he lifted his arms, bringing them crashing down to drive the orchestra forward.

Happy Birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach!

Johann Sebastian Bach

Today is the 326th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, the greatest composer of the baroque era, and one of the most influential musicians to ever walk the Earth.

Bach composed complex, contrapuntal music, firmly rooted in music theory and tradition, anchored by a rock-solid belief in God. His vast catalogue of compositions includes cantatas, concertos, keyboard compositions and a veritable textbook of organ music. Along the way, he invented the cello suite and wrote the Passions of St. Matthew and St. John, among the most powerful religious music ever written.

And four of his kids grew up to be famous composers.

For some listeners, Bach's mathematically perfect works suggest a divine, ideal form, with carefully constructed spires of counterpoint rising toward Heaven. For others, the precision of Bach can be used to define the triumph of man's reason over superstition. So in other words, the genius of Bach can be used to defend almost any argument.

Luckily, Bach lovers have many options to explore the master's music on disc and mp3, from esoteric high-end performances to giant budget box sets that offer a complete overview of Bach's genius.

Here's a quick look at the best Bach boxes.

Various Artists: Complete Bach Edition (Brilliant Classics, 155 CDs)
This authoritative compilation features the entire Bach ouevre, recorded in high digital quality. These performances do not feature the flashy, big label stars, but the musicians and singers range from adequate to exceptional. Mostly recorded in Holland and Belgium, this massive set will provide two solid weeks of musical education, and that's just at one sitting. Whew.

Ton Koopman, Organ: Complete Organ Works (Warner Brothers Classics/Das Alte Werk 16 CDs)
An exhaustive survey of Bach's works for organ. This reissue features the Dutch organist Ton Koopman, an organist and conductor who also recorded the complete cantatas for Erato. Koopman plays on eight different organs in Holland and Germany. Two of them (the organs in Freiburg and Hamburg) were played on by Bach himself. Other organists that are worth checking out include Simon Preston and the legendary, blind Helmut Walcha.

Concentius Musicus Wein cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt;
Leonhardt Consort cond. Gustav Leonhardt:
Complete Cantatas (Warner Brothers Classics, 60 CDs)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt is a former cellist who rose to fame by conducting Bach. (Incidentally, he's also a count, and a descendant of Holy Roman Emperors.) He's also a gifted conductor who built an international recording career on the back of these recordings. This was the first complete cycle of Bach cantatas ever recorded and is a milestone in the catalogue of Bach works.

English Baroque Soloists cond. John Eliot Gardiner: Sacred Choral Works and Cantatas (DG Archiv, 22 CDs)
This one's been mentioned before. Recently reissued, this set combines all of Gardiner's stellar recordings of the major Bach choral works: the two Passions, the Mass in B Minor and the oratorios, alongside the first few discs in his cycle of Bach cantatas before the conductor left DG and started his own record label. Crisply played performances in sterling sound.

Glenn Gould, Piano: Glenn Gould Plays Bach (Sony, 6 CDs)
When the 22-year old Glenn Gould recorded his 1955 run-through of the Goldberg Variations, he unknowingly made the first runaway classical hit of the LP era. He also put the pieces on the map as essential repertory for pianists.

Historical performance: Glenn Gould plays Bach's Third Partita for Piano.

Historical importance aside, the idiosyncratic (OK, downright weird) Canadian pianist had a unique interpretative touch. There are other exceptional Goldbergs in the catalogue, but none are as famous. This newly issued set includes Gould playing the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Inventions, Toccatas and Partitas. Not complete, but essential.