Bach Partitas for Piano – Concert
Sir András Schiff
Musical Performance Solo 0When Johann Sebastian Bach presented the public with his first published work in 1726, he was already 41 years old. The Partita in B-flat major would be followed by five more; ultimately, this master of the Baroque had all of them published under the title Clavier-Übung (“Piano Exercise”) as his Opus 1 in 1731. Dedicated to “amateurs, for the delectation of their spirit,” Bach decidedly intended this collection not for professional musicians, but for noble and bourgeois amateurs to whom music was an essence of life, but not a means of making a living. Even at the time, these works, which certainly demand advanced technical skills, were a sensation: “never had such excellent compositions for the clavier been seen or heard,” Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, declared. Sir András Schiff presented the Six Partitas as part of his multi-season Bach cycle at the Pierre Boulez Saal.
I made my first recording of Bach’s six partitas in London’s Kingsway Hall in 1983. Since then I’ve continued to study his great keyboard works and often performed them in cycles. Conducting the St. Matthew Passion and the B-minor Mass several times were experiences that have left an indelible mark on my piano performances: we frequently find dance movements in Bach’s churchmusic, and his instrumental works were often inspired by his sacred compositions. Great music is far greater than its performers. We try our entire lives to unveil its secrets and to convey its unique message. Even if we never quite reach that imaginary goal, our many performances give us experience and knowledge that was hidden from us years ago. We form a better understanding of its structure and inner workings; horizons broaden before our eyes. This was just as true of my second recording of the “Goldberg” Variations, made live in concert in 2003, as it was for the partitas I recorded during a recital in 2007.
To be sure, Bach never imagined performing all the partitas in a single concert. The object of his “Clavierübung” was, of course, to systematically summarize the forms and genres of his day. The work is designed to be at once encyclopedic, scholarly, and instructive. Nonetheless, the six partitas form an ideal, if long, concert program: Bach’s music succeeds over and over again in forging an intimate bond between performer and audience. It would be simple and logical to play these exemplary suites in their conventional order, as I used to do in the past. Yet I always had the feeling that something was not quite right. The B-flat major Partita calls for great inner tranquility of the sort that never exists at the beginning of a public recital. Is it really mandatory to place it at the beginning? I think not. If we start with the G-major Partita, the keys of the six works form a hexachord: G–a–B flat–c–D–e, with the major and minor modes evenly distributed among the ascending pitches and the sunlit, graceful G-major work forming an ingratiating and appropriate opening. This sequence is my personal choice; needless to say, it raises no claims to universal truth.
—Sir András Schiff
Piano
Sir András Schiff
Video Director and Editor
Frédéric Delesques
Director of Photography
Jean-Marc Bouzou
Camera
Henning Brümmer (DOP)
Anna Motzel
Joanna Piechotta
Marina Poole
Benedict Sicheneder
Maurice Wilkerling
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Jan Schunk
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Stéphane Andrivot
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Laurence Nefzi
Emmanuelle Faucilhon
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Teldex
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Friedemann Engelbrecht
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UNITEL
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A production of Unitel, Heliox Films in association with Classicall M_Media with the support of Centre National de la Cinematographie et de l’image animée.
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