{"id":247,"date":"2007-03-17T22:55:12","date_gmt":"2007-03-18T06:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/17\/cellos-bach-and-marathons-oh-my\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:04:39","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:04:39","slug":"cellos-bach-and-marathons-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/17\/cellos-bach-and-marathons-oh-my\/","title":{"rendered":"cellopalooza"},"content":{"rendered":"

We did a quick trip up to Seattle Friday night for the Seattle Violoncello Society’s Bach Suite Marathon<\/a> on Saturday morning\/afternoon. We arrived slightly late Saturday to catch the first of the suites performed by cellists from around Western (and Central) Washington. The performers included my lovely wife Heather Blackburn (she did the two Gavottes from the 5th suite) and our good friend Richard Treat, who did the two Minuets and Gigue from the 1st suite, as well as college educators from around Western Washington, members of the Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, local amateurs, and a couple advanced high school and college students. The order was 2nd (d minor), 4th (E-flat major), 5th (c minor) with a lunch break, and then the 3rd (C major), 1st (G major), and the great 6th (D major). There were around 25 cellists in all who played the suites, with most taking one or two movements, either contiguously or apart. Applause was witheld until the last movement was played, then the cellists who had performed each suite stood and took a collective bow.<\/p>\n

It was fascinating to see and hear all of the different approaches to both the suites themselves and to cello playing in general. It’s always amazing to me how personal the interpretation of Bach is. There was everything between full-blooded (and very much un-PC) Romantic tradition interpretations with lots of vibrato and portamento as well as more moribund tempos, and the “hip” (historically informed performance) style with minimal vibrato, no portamento and a more fleet approach to tempos. Bach’s music stood up equally well to all approaches, showing its innate sturdiness and flexibility to adaptation.<\/p>\n

Especially interesting to hear was the 6th suite, the most virtuosic of the set, and very much on a different stylistic and musical plane than the preceding five. There has been some lively debate lately among Bach scholars as to the attribution of the cello suites, with some new evidence suggesting that at least some of them might have been written by his wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. The stark difference in every one of the typical dance suite components between the sixth suite and the other five at least begs closer examination. Either Bach was after something completely different in the sixth than in the others, or is it possible that there are two different authors at work? I don’t think that it all is explained away by the fact that the sixth suite was written for a five-string instrument. It bears too much resemblance to the violin sonatas and partitas for a mere change of instrumentation to be responsible.<\/p>\n

The three performers for the sixth suite were John Friesen (Prelude and Allemande), who is the cello professor at Western Washington University. He did a yeoman’s job with two brutally difficult movements – all the more impressive since he had just driven down from Bellingham and was still panting from running in from his horrible parking space! Next was Amos Yang (Courante and Gavotte I\/II), a member of the Seattle Symphony cello section, who did some wonderfully inventive, tasteful, and attractive ornamentations in the Courante. Last to appear was Joshua Roman see an interesting interview here<\/a>. [thanks Alex Ross<\/a>]<\/footnote>, the newly-appointed principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony. He performed the Sarabande and Gigue movements, the former with poetic grace and extraordinarily subdued dynamics, considering that the movement is almost all played in double-stops, and the latter with grace and charm. This was all the more impressive since he had given his Seattle debut recital at Town Hall the evening before (a huge concert of the Bach 6th Suite, Ligeti Solo Sonata, and Kodaly Solo Sonata) and played a symphony rehearsal that morning. He’s hopefully enjoying a well-deserved rest now!<\/p>\n

Most gratifying was the large turnout for this event – the church in which it was held was a near capacity for most of the day. Good coverage in the two local Seattle papers was surely a factor, as might have been the clouds and rain that moved in late in the morning, making a Bach marathon an inviting place to wile away the hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We did a quick trip up to Seattle Friday night for the Seattle Violoncello Society’s Bach Suite Marathon on Saturday morning\/afternoon. We arrived slightly late Saturday to catch the first of the suites performed by cellists from around Western (and Central) Washington. The performers included my lovely wife Heather Blackburn (she did the two Gavottes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,55,93,62,3659],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical","tag-orchestra","tag-soloists","tag-symphony","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4317,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/01\/oso-music-director-to-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":0},"title":"oso music director to seattle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stunning announcement to a small group of musicians, staff and board members in Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Carlos Kalmar announced that he will be taking the helm of the Seattle Symphony after current music director Gerard Schwarz ends his tenure at the close of the 2010 - 2011 season.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13134,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/01\/2013-playlist\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":1},"title":"2013 playlist","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is as exhaustive as I can make it, but I've certainly missed some things by accident, and omitted others on purpose. It's been that kind of year. Here's to more great music in 2014! * = first time performed by me Chamber Music Bart\u00f3k Quartet No. 1* Britten Quartet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13941,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/27\/on-bach\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":2},"title":"on bach","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Saturday afternoon I played on the occasion of a memorial service for a violist friend of mine. His name was Scott Ligocki. He grew up in Seattle, went off to study at Curtis with Michael Tree, and returned to Seattle to begin an enormously successful teaching studio, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ligocki","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Ligocki-300x367.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/22\/auditioning-for-middle-farts\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":3},"title":"auditioning for middle-farts","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of you may not have been aware that over the past two weeks I've been preparing for an audition for the Seattle Symphony this past weekend (April 19-21). The orchestra had two vacancies, for Assistant principal (2nd chair) and section. As a relatively young person (38) but also a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/02\/27\/milton-katims-1909-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":4},"title":"Milton Katims 1909-2006","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The great violist and conductor Milton Katims has passed away in Seattle. Here are some links which help to illustrate the life of this great artist, who played principal viola in Toscanini's NBC Symphony and was the music director of the Seattle Symphony from 1954 - 1976. Eulogy by friend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2580,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/26\/whats-up-in-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":5},"title":"what’s up in seattle?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, here's an update of sorts: my info was completely wrong (that's what you get for trusting rumors, even if they seem to be from a good source) - I'll have some real information as things move along.\u00c2\u00a0 Mea culpa. There hasn't been any press on this as of yet,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}