# Playing Bach romantically and other sacrilege



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I find the best performances of Bach tend to be MIDI recordings. Human performers can't help but defile the works with "feelings" and other impurities.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I think it is like a spectrum. All humans play with _some_ feeling (and this is a good thing), I just prefer when the performer gets out of the way a little more, rather than imposing their style onto the music too much - some of a performer's own style will come through anyway. I don't want robotic, mechanical performances.


----------



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I'd like for the irregularities of performance to be studied in greater depth so we can write them instead of vague and lazy 'expressive markings', but alas there is a compromise between perfection, precision and time.


----------



## Guest (Mar 5, 2016)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> I'd like for the irregularities of performance to be studied in greater depth so we can write them instead of vague and lazy 'expressive markings', but alas there is a compromise between perfection, precision and time.


In the age of recorded music, it should be reasonable to include performance directions such as "Play like Lang Lang" or tempo markings like "Cobraissimmo"


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bach's music can almost always use a good drum set. Sometimes it doesn't have much of a beat and then it isn't that good for dancing. Also it keeps the more affected performers on the mark.


----------



## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

Couchie said:


> I find the best performances of Bach tend to be MIDI recordings. Human performers can't help but defile the works with "feelings" and other impurities.


As the latest music-loving robot from Sony, I agree with this.


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

In the future Bach will be performed only by computers, and enjoyed only by computers, long after humans in their total depravity have wasted away from the earth.


----------



## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Just think, in less than 20 years we can go and see a whole symphony orchestra made up of robots performing from midi files prepared by the new superstar programmers. No need for a pesky conductor and no need to pay musicians, just give'em the occasional lick of oil!


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

One can play HIP Bach with plenty of feeling.

Listen to Trevor Pinnock or Gustav Leonhardt play the Bach Partitas on harpsichord.

Do you think Bach would have wasted his time composing music if the instruments sounded dull and the musicians of his day couldn't play with expression? If that were the case, I would think he would have prefered to be a shoemaker.

I prefer Bach the "old" way. Pour on the HIP!


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Doesn't cut it for me. I hear too much of the influence of the programmer. Best is to just stare at the sheet music.


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Even the idea of "playing" Bach seems insufficiently serious to me.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I tend to hate too much rubato in any form of music. It's why I've shied away from Chopin so many years. But even baroque can use a tiny bit of expressive speeding and slowing. It just has to be subtle. Very subtle.


----------



## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Weston said:


> I tend to hate too much rubato in any form of music. It's why I've shied away from Chopin so many years. But even baroque can use a tiny bit of expressive speeding and slowing. It just has to be subtle. Very subtle.


I can understand not wanting too much vibrato if you're trying to dance! But with Chopin above all, a little rubato is welcome as long as it's not overdone. I don't think you can blame the composer for some of the excesses of his interpreters.
I recall not liking Bernstein's Mahler 2 because he ruined the climax of the first movement by slowing down too much. Not Mahler's fault though!
Everyone has different tastes and some people take liberties which work for them but not for other others.


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I was *shocked & dismayed* when I heard Richter 'russianize' the WTC. What Loesser did, well that does not bear dwelling upon.


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

If we must have singers and players performing Bach, we should at least take advantage of AutoTune and dynamic compression software to purge the recording of all un-historical liberties, as Bach would no doubt have wanted. It's 2016, after all.


----------



## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Ukko said:


> I was *shocked & dismayed* when I heard Richter 'russianize' the WTC. What Loesser did, well that does not bear dwelling upon.


Dear Tc colleague Ukko,

I am shell-shocked, gobsmacked, and confounded that you, whom I have considered a paragon of virtue and wellspring of wisdom, have accused Richter of "Russianizing" JSBach's WTC - I am forevermore speechless...

With Richter, I hear JSBach's WTC as water flowing over rocks in a riverbed...


----------



## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

There are indeed lots of "feelings" expressed through Bach's works. Generally, music from late Baroque era provide far more "personal" content than that of earlier music. Examples can be found in many religious works (like missa etc) from different period -- they share the same lyrics/text and so same general content, but the music from late Baroque is much more expressive than their counterpart in Renaissance or early Baroque.
Just compare Bach's Mass in B minor, with masses of Renaissance composers. No matter HIP or Modern practice is used, Anyone will easily get the personal feeling out of it.
So music of Bach does express something more than compositional techniques. It is perfectly OK to perform Bach in a personal or even romantic way, depending on how they treat a piece specifically.


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Ukko said:


> I was *shocked & dismayed* when I heard Richter 'russianize' the WTC. What Loesser did, well that does not bear dwelling upon.


Richter is my favorite Bach player. Bach with Slav Soul. Can't beat it!


----------

