Category Archives: Various

All of Bach, Bach for all

Leave a reply

Bach’s complete works recorded and filmed

In September 2013 the Netherlands Bach Society, in view of the upcoming celebration for its first 100 years, embarked on a remarkable and highly ambitious project: the performance and recording of every single note penned by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Since the first recordings were made available on 2 May 2014, a new Bach recording is released every single Friday. In this way, the complete corpus of Bach’s music is slowly but surely being made available to the public through a series of excellent performances and videos of outstanding quality.

The pieces are performed in a variety of locations, always according to the nature and original intent of the music: cantatas in churches, chamber music in living rooms, and so on.

The Netherlands Bach Society

The Netherlands Bach Society is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in the world. It was founded in 1921 for a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the Grote Kerk in Naarden and has performed the work annually since then in the Grote of Sint-Vituskerk (Great Church or St Vitus Church). It has played a prominent role in Dutch cultural life for many years, giving around 50 concerts all over the Netherlands as well as abroad each season.

 

All of Bach

You can learn more about All of Bach and check out the new recordings as they are being released on the project’s website and Facebook page.

Instruments of sorrow

2 Replies

Moreover, from a musical standpoint, it is interesting to trace the direct influence of such instrumental treatments on subsequent non-folk Greek music, as in the case of Socrates and their popular song Mountains.

The clarinet’s mourning

In neighboring Turkey, the song “Yemen Türküsü” mourns the death of Turkish soldiers in Yemen during the First World War. The well known folk song can be found in several different versions, and it has been also performed by Taksim Trio, a band of accomplished instrumentalists (Hüsnü Şenlendirici – clarinet, Aytaç Doğan – qanun, İsmail Tunçbilek – baglama) that has been part of Istanbul’s diverse and vibrant music scene.

The guitar’s outcry

One of the oldest and most despondent forms of flamenco music, siguiriyas is characterized by its profound, expressive style and tragic nature. When sung, the lyrics reflect the suffering of human relationships, love and death; however, it is also encountered as an instrumental piece with great potential for emotional outlet in the hands of the capable and sensitive artist – as in this performance by flamenco composer and guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar.

The -vinyl- music challenge

Leave a reply

I was recently challenged to come up with a list of my 10 favorite records. No easy task, especially as one’s musical taste tends (and ought) to change along with -and because of- one’s life experiences and influences. In fact, any such list is essentially a moment frozen in time: no doubt my choices will be different if I try this exercise again in a month, year or decade from now.

Having said that, I tried to think how I could make my -inevitably arbitrary and ephemeral- selection a bit more meaningful. I wanted to make a point and so I decided to consider only records from my vinyl collection. Vinyl still persists amidst today’s technological frenzy, and for a good reason: apart from its full, warm sound it brings with it a whole culture, from the process surrounding its purchase to the actual listening experience and the sheer pleasure of enjoying its artwork.

So here’s some of the most memorable vinyl records I have acquired over the last few years (arranged à la Nick Hornby in chronological order of acquisition):

1) Sviatoslav Richter – J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier

The world’s greatest pianist meets the world’s greatest composer. Amen.

2) Neville Marriner – Amadeus [Original Soundtrack Recording]

As if Mozart’s sublime music wasn’t rewarding enough, listening to this record reminds me of Milos Forman’s epic masterpiece, one of my favorite movies ever.

3) The Beatles – Rubber Soul

Someone once said there are three great Bs in music: Bach, Beethoven and… The Beatles. He was right.

4) Jacque Loussier Trio – Play Bach No. 1

I’ve hinted at the artistry of French pianist Jacque Loussier in an earlier post about Vivaldi, but it was with his inspired take on Bach that he made his breakthrough.

5) Baden Powell – Poema on Guitar

I love everything about this record: its title, its beautiful cover, and above all Baden Powell’s tuneful guitar sound and dreamy compositions.

P1030279-001

6) Simon & Garfunkel – The Concert in Central Park

I still get goose bumps every single time I listen to this. Timeless.

7) Led Zeppelin – IV

I bought this in a vinyl shop in Istanbul. Like the Quran in mosques or the Bible in churches, I think it should be freely available at all conservatories and music schools.

8) Arvo Pärt – Tabula Rasa

A deeply evocative work by a remarkable and highly idiosyncratic composer whose music truly makes time stand still.

9) Thanasis Papakonstantinou – Ο Ελάχιστος Εαυτός (The Minimal Self)

The finest and most original composer that has emerged in the last 20 years in Greece. His records are like rays of light amidst a vast darkness…

10) Paco de Lucía – Almoraima

A true miracle of technique, composition, and expression – the more I listen to it, the more I admire Paco’s astonishing skill as both guitarist and musical innovator.

Haarlem’s musical treasure

1 Reply

The cathedral

Just a 15-minute train ride from boisterous and cosmopolitan Amsterdam lies the charming city of Haarlem (which incidentally gave its name to Nieuw Haarlem in the northern part of Manhattan Island back in 1658). Its skyline has been dominated by the imposing Grote Kerk (or Sint-Bavokerk) cathedral, a Protestant church situated on the city’s central market square.

The organ

The organ situated inside the church (known as the Christiaan Müller organ) is considered as one of the world’s most important organs. Built by the Amsterdam organ builder Christian Müller between 1735 and 1738, it was the largest organ in the world by the time of its completion with 60 voices and 32-feet pedal-towers.

Such has been the instrument’s reputation that even Herman Melville mentioned it in his classic novel Moby-Dick (1851) when describing the inside of a whale’s mouth:

“Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes”

Many important musicians and composers have played the Christiaan Müller organ over the centuries including Mendelssohn, Händel, as well as the 10-year old Mozart who visited Haarlem in 1766 in order to play the renowned organ.

Haarlem’s Grote Kerk by night
The cathedral’s interior
The Peace & Harmony window by Michel van Overbeeke (2009)
The Christiaan Müller organ

The concerts

Having been modified a number of times over the course of the past centuries, the organ underwent a major renovation between 1959 and 1961. Today regular organ concerts together with several special events are being held in the Grote Kerk in order to give the opportunity to the public to listen to the unique sound of this celebrated organ.

Although I have visited Haarlem in the past, it was only recently that I had the chance to attend one of these concerts. Listening to the sound of this spectacular instrument filling up the vast space of the cathedral’s interior was quite a special experience. And it was only made possible through the masterful  playing of Haarlem’s city ​​organists Jos van der Kooy and Anton Pauw, who treated the audience to an excellent program including works by J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Max Reger, and Hendrik Andriessen.

Roots Open Air (Java Island, Amsterdam)

Leave a reply

A festival with strong roots

Throughout its long and interesting history, Roots Festival has been introducing Amsterdam crowds to exciting new sounds and great artists, many of whom (e.g. Fela Kuti, Salif Keita, Manu Dibangowho) were already hugely popular in their home countries before becoming part of the everyday vocabulary among the circles of local music aficionados.

New edition, new location

This year’s edition marked a big change as Roots Open Air, the outdoor event which concluded the festival, moved for the first time from Oosterpark to a new location: the Java Island in Amsterdam’s Eastern Docklands area. Thus, On 6 July, Java Island’s Kop van Java became host to a unique blend of musical styles ranging from non-Western pop and Afro-Caribbean to funk, psychedelic and electronic music.

Roots Festival (Kop van Java, Amsterdam)

Roots Open Air 2014 (Java Island, Amsterdam)

Singing in the rain

Despite the rain showers that persisted throughout most of the evening, the diversity and quality of music on offer were more than enough to make up for the lousy weather.

I first had the chance to watch Garifuna Collective, who presented the soulful melodies and powerful rhythms of their native region in Central America. After the beautiful tunes of the Garifuna people, the volume was raised for the Colombian Bomba Estereo and their dynamic ‘psychedelic cumbia’ sound.

Still, the highlight of this year’s festival was surely the closing performance by Youssou N’Dour. The Senegalese singer and composer performed both new and old songs (including 7 Seconds), as well as covers from such classics as Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The best conclusion to the event (and certainly one of the day’s extra-musical highlights) was coming out of the main stage after the rain was over to watch an incredible evening skyline…