BACH Toca, Adagio & Fugue in C - III recital 11/11/07

BACH Toca, Adagio & Fugue in C - III recital 11/11/07

Note the triumphant ending. Bach paints an inspired depiction of Heavenly gates emanating rays of blinding light, perhaps in a magnificent celebration of good over evil.

Note, an ending like this is a perfect example of something a Brahms, Scriabin or Tchaikovsky admitted was beyond their reach of understanding, since church music (i.e. its subject matter, inner faith, or general optimism) was something they tried hard to believe in, but ultimately failed. Their work is decidedly pessmist. So their works, while truly great in themselves, tend to reveal a characteristic 'tragic fatalism' to it, absent of the sort of majestic Triumphalism (optimism) you hear across most of Bach's works.

Note, this does not mean we should think any less of Tchaikovsky--he is my favorite composer by far to study, one of the particularly gifted rare ones of towering Intellect, able to speak the universal language of music, to "approach Heaven" far beyond most other composers of atheistic bent.

But when I talk of 'something missing' in most composers, such as Brahms and Tchaikovsky (with all due respect), the Bach T.A.F. is a clear example of this audible spirit. Its outer movements are Redemptive, affirmations of a certain kind of rare, inner faith, of hope, and of giving thanks for mere existence, which Bach had in abundance, but which Brahms and Tchaikovsky in tortured anguish, lacked.

Compare to Tchaikovsky's magnum opus, his Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique', where the outer movements are suicidal, fatalistisic, tantalizing us for a time with two extremely-positive, "pseudo-triumphant", and technically beautiful inner movements, only to say "no thanks" in the last movement, as it putters out to nothingness. He is purported to have committed suicide 9 days after conducting its premiere.

Whereas Bach, with his many organ works and chorales for worship, had lots of children...it takes a special kind of faith to "trust" that everything will work out to have that many kids...and you hear his infectuous optimism right here, especially the huge pedal note at the end. In contrast with Tchaikovsky's 6th, Bach's final movement is an affirmation of life, and meaning. So I decided to accentuate that with the big Trompette stop.

Unfortunately, during this performance, I was having a bad day, w flu, lacking sleep (cramming to program the stops on this organ until 2am the night before), during a fiscally distressful time, & scarce practice for 10 yrs. This was the first time live on an organ of this caliber, a sort of 'debut' at First Congregational in Palo Alto, CA.

I played it much better in preps only 2 hrs earlier, but noticed my mind falling asleep at this point. Quite frustrating. Still the piece is being gradually revived. Maybe better next time.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• BACH
• Toca
• Adagio
• Fugue
• recital
• toccata
• pipe
• organ
• SULIT

[arthursulit]

yepp, great guy, let me have it all day the night before. He didn't think I'd stay until 2am. He came in to practice himself, and I was still there finding new tone colors to use.