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Johann Sebastian Bach |
Odyssey - Bach and the cello
With Prunella Scales and John Butt
This programme was devised by the Bach expert John Butt, a prominent Bach scholar and accomplished keyboardist.
The imaginative range of observations is taken from the composer's own letters, writings by his contemporaries and reflections on his significance by well-known names from subsequent generations. (Among the latter is praise by Richard Wagner, who cited the start of the Bach revival without mentioning its initiator, Felix Mendelssohn, who displeased Wagner by being a Jew). Butt emphasises Bach on both personal and universal themes, and uses the cello to match the mood of the preceding words.
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This will be a concert where the audience will journey into the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, definitely one of the greatest names in the world of classical music. Raphael Wallfisch (violoncello) and John Butt (harpsichord) will be accompanied by Prunella Scales (narrator) in this performance. The concert will begin with the fundamentals of Bach's music and then develop into a journey through the pleasures of the great composer: "cigarettes, coffee, wine and food", uniting the composer's life with his music.
John Butt |
Contemporary views on Bach at the beginning of a new millennium provide a fascinating counterpoint to our historical knowledge of his life and personality, drawn in part from his own writings, whilst a selection of solo cello suites and sonatas for gamba and harpsichord provide the rich musical background to this investigation of Bach's ever-changing image.
Portrait of J.S. Bach and three of his sons |
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