what’s up in Pyeongchang / Bach
by richibi
“The Cello Player“ (1896)
________
though I’d considered presenting all six
of Bach’s Cello Suites – your one stop
shopping for these extraordinary
compositions – even one only of these
masterpieces floored me each time I
individually listened
why the Suites, cause I couldn’t follow
up on Beethoven’s Opus 5, for cello
and piano accompaniment, without
saying more about the cello, by then
an instrument of some significance,
and who could argue, it’s resonance
thrills you in your bones, in your very
being
Frederick ll, King of Prussia, played it,
earning for him tailored compositions,
however controversial, from both
Mozart and Haydn, but even earlier,
Bach had composed definitive pieces
for it, much as he’d done for the
harpsichord, precursor to the piano,
students of either still go to Bach for
their basics, their intricate, exquisite,
technical proficiency
the cello can play one note only at a
time, which means that, like a voice,
you’re working without harmony,
you need to make your own,
otherwise your performance is
boring, no one else, as far as I know,
has ever written anything else for
unaccompanied cello, not even
Beethoven
I find most performers lend Bach a
more Romantic air, torrid emotion,
excesses of volume, pauses to the
pace, ritardandos, rallentandos,
which aren’t appropriate to the
more genteel Baroque period,
something I usually find
unwelcome
but in this performance, I’m sure
not even Bach would object
I’m offering up first the Sixth Cello
Suite, D major, played by Jian Wang,
someone I’d never heard of, in a
dazzling performance in Pyeongchang,
a place I’d neither ever heard of, until
only very recently
it appears both of these new kids on
the block ought to be on the map
R ! chard
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