one of the most interesting things about Bach is the way he takes other
composer's music and transforms it into himself.  It feels as if he wanted
to absorb the essence of French or Italian style by appropriating Vivaldi,
Pergolesi, Couperin, De Grigny or whoever and turning the music of these
composers inside out to see how it is made.  the result always sounds like
Bach never like the original.  i feel this links Bach to Liszt in a
profound way because Liszt did much the same with his rearrangements
of practically everybody of any musical consequence in the 19th century.
You get the feeling with both composers that they never performed a piece
the same way twice.  Bach seems to be always questing for the perfect
realisation of musical ideas, to give them their purest form and
expression.  Liszt wants to dazzle and surprise with his effects.  His
technique must have been so stupendous that being able to play anything,
he got bored with mere repetition.  Another link is the fact that Bach was
regarded as one of the foremost keyboard virtuosos of his day and he needed
repertoire to demonstrate his prowess in the same way Liszt did later.
What better way than to arrange the popular concertos of the international
composer of the moment, Vivaldi.

"Gordon Martin" <[log in to unmask]>