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Date: | Wed, 3 Mar 1999 20:09:40 -0500 |
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John Dalmas wrote:
>A number of instrumentalists have told me time and again exactly what
>Thanh-Tam Le said about Bach, and I honestly believe that what T.T. said
>about Bach is true for him and for them. But as a listener and not an
>instrumentalist, I hear in too many of Bach's works only the CONSTRUCTION
>of a BRILLIANT CRAFTSMAN.
Then the performances you have been listening to are probably not very
good ones. (I don't think it's your fault as a listener.) No one has any
business whatsoever performing Bach in public, in my most humble opinion,
unless she/he can make the soul of the music heard by non-musicians in the
audience. It can be done, if you have it in you to be a Bach interpreter.
And if one argues that this or that piece doesn't have any soul, and is
only a "brilliant construction," then it may be that it really *is* only a
technical study, which the musician should practice alone and not perform
in public. But I don't think there are many of those, if any, in Bach's
total output. Even his practice pieces for students (as Jane Pierce
mentioned in relaying the experience of her student) can be performed very
expressively if you take the care to do so.
I hate to sound argumentative about this, but I feel this very strongly.
Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]
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