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Siete qui: Home Festival Festival 2011 An evening with Bach
An evening with Bach PDF Print E-mail
International critics have compared the sound of the Il Suonar Parlante viola da gamba quartet to some famous classical string quartets and, with the “Bach piano” (Silbermann 1749), it puts the Summa bachiana into a whole new light. A selection of lieder by Johann Sebastian Bach re-evokes the atmosphere of an evening’s music at home – Hausmusik – while Carl Philipp Emmanuel’s songs, inspired in Berlin, illustrate his “modern” style of composing that opened up a magic new musical world: the romantic lied for voice and piano.
Recent studies and Lorenzo Ghielmi’s research on the Art of the Fugue have demolished the romantic myth of Bach not having been able to complete his work; we now understand the Contrapunctus XIV better, and how Bach worked. The four instruments authentically respect the date of composition, and present Bach’s brilliant theories as easy to play and enjoyable by all – the mark of great music. The counterpoint usually alternates between the piano (or harpsichord) and the four violas. Like a game of chess it sets its own rhythm, clarifying the overall profile of the piece, and leading the listener gently through it, keeping his attention all the way. Bach’s son’s lieder mark the division, accompanied on the fortepiano.
The Silbermann piano was the only one J.S. Bach owned. King Frederick the Great of Prussia had a whole collection, and it was on one of these that Bach improvised on a theme the king handed him when he visited Berlin. Its tonal colour, marking the progression from harpsichord to piano, casts fresh light on Bach’s counterpoint, but also on the Berlin lieder that led the way to the vocal masterpieces of the next century (Schubert).
The viola da gamba quartet traces Bach’s masterpiece back to its Renaissance origins, highlighting its expressive range and infinite nuances of colour. The fortepiano carries the listener back to King Frederick’s soirées with Carl Philipp Emmanuel’s music heralding the transition of European culture from Baroque to Romantic. This meeting of ancient and modern breathes fresh life into the cornucopia of Bach’s works.

(based on the liner from the Cd winter&winter)