I fully agree with Mimi! Brava! And I will continue to have a love fest with J.S. at the piano, without guilt or remorse. Shirley Kirsten M.A.International Piano Instructor LIVE, and Online lessons by Skype Grad NYC HS of Performing Arts Oberlin Conservatory New York University Cell: 510-439-8567 Performances and Online Piano Lessonshttp://www.youtube.com/arioso7Piano Blogging at Word Presshttp://arioso7.wordpress.com
On Saturday, June 9, 2018 4:02 PM, Sandy Hackney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Some years ago I was walking down a small street in Basle and I heard the
Toccata and Fugue in d minor from somewhere. I came upon a street
musician, sitting against the wall with his hat waiting to receive any SF
(or rappen) that would come his way, playing it on some sort of accordion.
It was thrilling! And yes, Mimi, it was music. Thank you for your
comments.
Sandy
On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 6:33 PM, Mimi Waitzman <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> David,
> Nobody owns Bach; not you, not Beatrice Rana, not Gould, Busoni,
> Leonhardt,
> Tovey... no one. Bach belongs to everyone who enjoys the music. We cannot
> dictate others' innocent enjoyment. There is no right or wrong way to play
> or enjoy Bach. Bach's music is not a moral imperative, it is art. It is a
> conversation. It is right to play Bach. Play it any way you can, on
> anything
> you can. Learn it, hear it again and again. Hum it, improvise on it. Get to
> grips with it in any way you can. You enjoy it one way, someone else enjoys
> it another. If you don't like what you are hearing, turn off the recording,
> or the radio or leave the concert hall. Harpsichordists are not locked in
> battle with pianists. This is music. This is about participating in another
> person's creative imagination.
> Mimi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf
> Of
> David Pickett
> Sent: 09 June 2018 21:30
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Bach on the Piano
>
> I know I am preaching to the choir here, so do not feel obliged to respond
> to this obvious vent about what is probably the bleeding obvious to you
> all...
>
> I read today of yet another recording of the Goldberg Variations on the
> mighty Steinway (Beatrice Rana). I can only suppose that pianists are
> either
> unable to master the harpsichord, or just stuck in a Gould/Busoni mindset.
>
> Having tried for YEARS to play Bach's music on the piano, I was never able
> to do so with conviction or personal satisfaction. Certain features seemed
> so badly composed for the instrument -- until I discoverd harpsichords 20
> or
> so years ago and all fell in place. (I can enjoy Glenn Gould's recordings
> from time to time, but when I hear him play works that are familiar to me
> in
> harpsichord guise I am unable to recognise them as the same pieces!)
>
> Clearly the "battle" of persuading musicians to play baroque keyboard music
> on appropriate instruments is not won. At first the "traditionalists" had a
> point in that the results were often unmusical, and in many cases they
> still
> are, though the pendulum has swung from sewing machine to unrhythmical.
> Today it seems that one is either a player of a Steinway /Bösendorfer or an
> "early keyboardist". Why are these two so incompatible? Why must a player
> be
> considered committed to one and not the other?
> (Aside: in his edition of the 48, e.g. his notes to the B minor P&F of Book
> I, Tovey refers approvingly to the clavichord; was he the first modern
> pianist to do this?)
>
> How to convince the seemingly invincibly ignorant, who are often nice
> people, and who can play the heck out of Liszt and Brahms, but not enter
> into the spirit of Froberger or the Couperins, and who seemingly imagine
> that Bach would have wasted hours of his life composing for the wretched
> instruments that they take harpsichords and clavichords to be?
>
> Collectively it seems we are doing something wrong in not being able to win
> this "battle".
>
> David
>
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--
*Check out this great website - Lots of photos and information:*
http://www.cambridgevalleycycling.org/activities/
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Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
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versity of Iowa. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask] saying HELP .
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
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[log in to unmask] saying HELP .
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