with me. He says this fellow is one of the finest interpreters of Bach alive (and he wouldn't be surprised if he were one of the finest even among the dead):
And he does a great Schutz, too. Certainly my favourite recording of the Seven Words.
There's a great interview of Suzuki, where you get as clear a sense of the crucial link between the performer sharing, or at least understanding from within, the faith of the composer. Doing Bach in Japan has crystallised the issue, much to our benefit. Here's a typical extract:
Sometimes to record one short chorale it took two hours to explain what the text meant and to talk about vision and intonation, etc
Glorious! Suzuki's comments about the power of music at a believer's funeral reminded me of a funeral where the entire extended family went forward after the Gospel and sang "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart"--"My prayer attend, my prayer attend, And I will praise Thee without end." (I think I'll listen to that hymn right now on the "Hymns for All the Saints" CD.)
I like what Masaaki Suzuki wrote in the liner notes to the first recording of Bach Collegium Japan. Responding to the question of how the Japanese could "dare play the music of Bach", Suzuki wrote:
"... [T]he God in whose service Bach laboured and the God I worship today are one and the same. In the sight of the God of Abraham, I believe that the two hundred years separating the time of Bach from my own day can be of little account. This conviction has brought the great composer very much closer to me. We are fellows in faith, and equally foreign in our parentage to the people of Israel, God's people of Biblical times. Who can be said to approach more nearly the spirit of Bach: a European who does not attend church and carries his Christian cultural heritage mostly on the subconscious level, or an Asian who is active in his faith although the influence of Christianity on his national culture is small?"
Apparently you don't have to travel to Japan to experience Mr. Suzuki's conducting - he is currently a guest professor at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He gave a free Bach concert in October 09 - perhaps he will come up on the schedule again.
7 comments:
I really enjoyed that video. What a clear sound!
Pete Hoft
And he does a great Schutz, too. Certainly my favourite recording of the Seven Words.
There's a great interview of Suzuki, where you get as clear a sense of the crucial link between the performer sharing, or at least understanding from within, the faith of the composer. Doing Bach in Japan has crystallised the issue, much to our benefit. Here's a typical extract:
Sometimes to record one short chorale it took two hours to explain what the text meant and to talk about vision and intonation, etc
Glorious! Suzuki's comments about the power of music at a believer's funeral reminded me of a funeral where the entire extended family went forward after the Gospel and sang "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart"--"My prayer attend, my prayer attend, And I will praise Thee without end." (I think I'll listen to that hymn right now on the "Hymns for All the Saints" CD.)
Chuck Sampson
I like what Masaaki Suzuki wrote in the liner notes to the first recording of Bach Collegium Japan. Responding to the question of how the Japanese could "dare play the music of Bach", Suzuki wrote:
"... [T]he God in whose service Bach laboured and the God I worship today are one and the same. In the sight of the God of Abraham, I believe that the two hundred years separating the time of Bach from my own day can be of little account. This conviction has brought the great composer very much closer to me. We are fellows in faith, and equally foreign in our parentage to the people of Israel, God's people of Biblical times. Who can be said to approach more nearly the spirit of Bach: a European who does not attend church and carries his Christian cultural heritage mostly on the subconscious level, or an Asian who is active in his faith although the influence of Christianity on his national culture is small?"
Apparently you don't have to travel to Japan to experience Mr. Suzuki's conducting - he is currently a guest professor at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He gave a free Bach concert in October 09 - perhaps he will come up on the schedule again.
This is incredible. Wow. I just bought the CD.
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