Back to Bach
Another very busy and tiring day gave me no time to post anything until I got home this evening. Still, Ye Olde Blogge seems to be managing well these days without me. I’m going to have an early and largely blog-free night tonight, but I thought I’d share this with you before I slump onto the sofa. I heard this piece on the radio a few days ago. I usually wake up when my alarm clock turns the radio on. Sometimes the music doesn’t get me going straight away and I slumber on for a while. When this came on, however, I was mesmerised and couldn’t have gone back to sleep if I’d wanted to.
I’ve loved the music of Johann Sebastian Bach for a very long time, but a lot of his work is still new to me, as this piece was until very recently. It’s one of the trio sonatas for organ that he wrote relatively late in life, apparently to help his sons learn to play the organ. The trio sonata format usually involved two different solo instruments playing over a bass accompaniment called a continuo, but here all three parts are played on the organ by one musician. The result is absolutely beautiful, especially played as this recording on a lovely sounding organ.
I’ve listened to this piece repeatedly over the last week or so and every time I hear it I’m filled with a sense of euphoria. I think awesome is an understatement for such music as this.
PS. The pictures are of the town of Leipzig, which was Bach’s home for many years.
In the Dark 
April 4, 2011 at 10:03 pm
J. S. Bach wrote some magnificent music, including for organ.
Often when I’ve been doing something stressful or I’m returning home from somewhere, I’ll relax by listening to Bach’s Goldberg Variations on my MP3 player. It is always a performance played on the piano by András Schiff. The piece has a sense of serenity. It helps me to unwind.
It seemed a bit odd doing it after attending my last concert, though: the concert happened to feature Schiff playing the piano!
April 5, 2011 at 10:49 am
Bryn: I inherited two CDs of Goldberg on piano and had the happy task of listening to both to decide which to keep; Schiff won. I’d have kept both if the other had been on harpsichord (sorry Peter!)
I was in Leipzig briefly in 1995 and the town centre was the largest building site I have ever seen – West German money being used to finally repair war damage and a generation of neglect under wonderful communist economics. A good job the work has been done before Germany trashes its own economy via its energy/green policies. However, I think I too would be tempted to work less hard if the fruits merely go to bail out other EU countries where people temporarily attained the same material standard of living by borrowing, rather than by working harder…
To the common response that Bach ‘doesn’t do emotion’, I say: Listen to the thundering organ pieces and the slow movements of the violin concertos. Genius.
Anton
April 5, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Anton: “A good job the work has been done before Germany trashes its own economy via its energy/green policies.”
Phillip: “Actually, most pundits expect this to be a huge stimulus to the economy”
I know that. I don’t agree with them (and I’m not alone). I’m not inclined to fight this out here – let time tell.
I would be surprised if Britain insisted that Germany join the Euro given that we didn’t. I don’t have any part in corporate responsibility for what the other Allies insisted.
Enjoy the concert!
Anton
April 5, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Aspiring to play the trio sonatas is as good a reason as any for learning to play the organ. They’re hard but accessible to amateur players, and they’re all magic.
April 5, 2011 at 12:21 pm
That’s called diplomatic chess. Germany had other options. The very possibility of reunification was triggered by the fact that the communist bloc would no longer invade…
April 5, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I have 4 versions of the Goldberg Versions on CD: early and late ones by Glenn Gould, one by Angela Hewitt, and the one by Andras Schiff. I like them all, for different reasons, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone who picked Schiff as the best; I also have his CDs of the Well-Tempered Clavier, which are also lovely.
April 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm
I haven’t got the Angela Hewitt version of the Goldberg Variations, though I have considered buying it in the past. I’ve got the other three!
I do not have a recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier: it’s something I need to get. (It should be said that my main interest in music is from c.1800 to 1950, so my CD collection is a bit limited when it comes to the Baroque.)
April 5, 2011 at 3:39 pm
It might be added that reason that some of us do not have that many Baroque recordings is not that we haven’t explored it: it’s because we have explored it and don’t particularly like it.
Particularly harpsichords.
April 5, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I agree with Bryn and disagree with Phillip. I don’t think there’s really a “big three”, actually. Handel certainly wrote some lovely music but Bach is in a league of his own, I think.
April 5, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Dunno about that. Whenever I hear certain bits of Händel I think “Bach couldn’t match that” then whenever I hear certain bits of Bach I think “Händel couldn’t match that”.
Thank for the umlaut Phillip. I’ve never worked out how to do it in these blogs and now I can just cut and paste…
April 5, 2011 at 6:11 pm
You can’t make an umlaut without ….
April 5, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Breaking äggs?
April 6, 2011 at 3:08 pm
No, I didn’t guess it (nor did I know it!) There are some amusing cross-language congruences; French ‘ail’ (pronounced the same as German Ei) is garlic. The Italian for ‘cat’ is gatto which is pronounced identically to the French for Cake. And I’ll never ask a German if he would like a Gift…
April 5, 2011 at 3:23 pm
What I was suggesting was that France, Britain and America would not have invaded Germany to prevent unification, and once the Soviets wouldn’t either the Germans could have just stuck two fingers up (or one to America) and done it anyway regardless of the currency issue. As I understand it the German politicians were all for the Euro – it was the German people who weren’t. France, UK, USA and USSR are not responsible for a gulf between German politicians and people.
I haven’t (and am not going to) give any judgement of mine on moral rights or wrongs in all this. I’m talking realpolitik. As far as my personal sympathies go I can see both sides.
April 6, 2011 at 7:10 pm
BBC Radio 3 is currently broadcasting a concert with Angela Hewitt
and the Britten Sinfonia playing Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No.5 in F minor. An orchestral transcription (!) of the Goldberg Variations will follow later.