Music philosopher Marlies De Munck called for Bach to be taken off his pedestal and – away from the museum – given back a voice in opposition to Thierry Baudet’s political recuperation. Nadar brings Bach out from under his bell jar with idiosyncratic compositions in which Bach resonates in different ways. For instance, Nadar opens the concert with the iconic Prelude from Bach’s first cello suite, but in an at times hilarious Plunderphonics version by Niko D. Schroeder. Austrian composer Eva Reiter is a gambist and Paetzold recorder player seasoned in the early music world. In The Wilderness of mirrors, Bach’s famous Chaconne, with a repeating ostinato bass, from the 2nd Partita seeks a way into Reiter’s layered musical palace of mirrors. Simon Steen-Andersen’s arrangement of Bach’s moving Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo for solo ‘backside’ guitar is an intelligent example of ‘historical performance practice’. At the same time, his version is more distant but also closer to the original work for clavichord that the young Bach wrote as a lamentation on the departure of his brother Johann Jacob. When listening to the Gigue from Bach’s fifth cello suite, English composer Joanna Bailie experienced a ‘strange resemblance’ to an old-fashioned train puffing along. Finally, Simon Steen-Andersen’s arrangement of Schlummert ein from the cantata Ich habe genuch is like a record that inaudibly plays slower and slower until, as it were, the music itself has fallen asleep. ‘Musical polyglot’ Anthony Romaniuk answers, improvises and complements this concert with work by the ‘real’ Bach, at least insofar as he still exists.
PROGRAM
– Niko D. Schroeder: Bach Acceleration Studies (2022) video
– Simon Steen-Andersen: Schlummert ein uit Inszenierte Nacht (2013)
– Johann Sebastian Bach: Prélude BWV 1006a (1736) (arr. Romaniuk)
– Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del fratello dilettissimo BWV 992 (1703) – Ist eine Schmeichelung der Freunde, um denselben von seiner Reise abzuhaltenf – Ist eine Vorstellung unterschiedlicher Casuum, die ihm in der Fremde könnten vorfallen – Ist ein allgemeines Lamento der Freunde arr. Simon Steen-Andersen for ‘backside’ gitaar (2008) – Allhier kommen die Freunde, weil sie doch sehen, dass es anders nicht sein kann, und nehmen Abschied. – Aria di Postiglione – Fuga all’imitazione della cornetta di postiglione
– Joanna Bailie: Trains (2014)
– Eva Reiter: The wilderness of mirrors (2020)
– Johann Sebastian Bach: Ich ruf’ zu dir Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 (1708)
