Bach Prelude No. 2

Whilst serving as maestro di cappella in the city of Köthen, Johann Sebastian Bach composed the 24 preludes and fugues that form the Book I of The Well-Tempered Klavier. He had arrived in Köthen in 1717, shortly after his then employer, the Duke of Weimar, had lifted the punishment he had imposed upon Bach, releasing him from prison.

The Duke had an assortment of peculiarities which had been slowly but surely worsening his relationships with his "lackey" Bach (i.e. an assistant for various purposes), who had been serving him from 1708 as both chamber musician and organist of the Court. To the mix, we should add the rebellious character of konzertmeister Johann Sebastian, and his stubbornness and obstinacy, traits that accompanied him throughout his life, often hampering his dealings with his superiors.

In 1717, Bach learned that he had been recommended for the position of kapellmeister at the Court of Köthen, which he accepted with alacrity, sending at once his family to that city. Alas, he had not requested the mandatory authorization from the Duke...

When he did it, it was too late. Exasperated, the Duke did not respond and after Bach’s insistence, surely not very tactful, the boss lost his patience. After four weeks of imprisonment, Bach “was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge”, as reads the note by the Registrar of the Court. Eventually, Bach reunited with his family in Köthen and took charge of his post, where he remained until 1723.

JS Bach - Prelude No. 2

This version of the Prelude No. 2 of The Well Tempered Klavier, Book 1, by Glenn Gould, is unmistakable. The Canadian pianist and composer renewed the interpretation of Bach (despite the fact that he used to play sitting at the piano on a short-legged chair, with his chin almost touching the keyboard!).

Bach Gounod Ave Maria

Many people have walked in pomp and circumstance along the aisle, arm in arm with their future life partner. Their slow happy steps were perhaps marked by that most beautiful melody  known as Schubert's Ave Maria, one of the many Ave Marias composed by numerous authors over the years. It is the most popular for such occasions; no doubt, it was the one that many of us heard in our own wedding, whilst we bowed here and there to friends and relatives, with a radiant smile of happiness. 

However, an author unintentionally composed half of an Ave Maria; to be fair, more than one-half. It was 1772 and Johann Sebastian Bach was beginning his greatest pedagogical and systematic work for the keyboard, The Well-Tempered Clavier. The book includes 24 preludes and fugues for the twelve major keys and twelve minor ones. Of enormous significance, the work helped to impose the division of the octave in exactly twelve chromatic halftones, which allowed for the mechanism of modulations (the smooth transition from one key to another within the same piece), to develop to its limits.

The first prelude is in C major; here we hear it in a modest version performed on a digital keyboard:

Clave Bien Temperado - Preludio N° 1

Many years later, during the 1850s, the author of the opera Faust, Charles Gounod, was enjoying his own interpretation of this prelude when suddenly his Muse delicately touched his shoulder suggesting to him a tune he immediately called, "Meditation on Bach’s Prelude No. 1". Soon afterwards, the French composer realised that the words of the very old prayer called in Latin Ave Maria, fitted his beautiful melody perfectly.

This is what we know today as the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria. Although less popular, it is in my opinion as beautiful as the one written by Schubert, if not more.

The version presented here is for harp and violin, which allows for a clear recognition of the prelude, and at the same time the appreciation of the obviously talented work of Gounod. Those who like singing can learn the melody here, and then use the Prelude above to rehearse their own version of the piece.

Hannibal Lecter and the Goldberg Variations

Title page of the Goldberg Variations (first edition).
Clavier Ubung means "keyboard exercises".

You would not find a person in the world who would not believe that the so-called classical music soothes the soul and helps to eradicate our inner demons. Those people also see themselves as good folks, sensitive souls that would be incapable of killing a fly. However, this is not always true.

The Goldberg Variations is a work that would confirm the perceived virtues of classical music. Composed for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, it was completed around 1742, almost at the end of his life, while serving as kantor in Leipzig. The work includes an aria and 30 variations; it all ends with a shorter version of the initial aria, as if to remind us where everything came from. The complete piece lasts a little less than an hour and it is customarily played in one go, even though the interpreter generally takes a break after Variation 15th. This is what noticed during Alfredo Perl's recent rendition at the Municipal Theatre in Santiago.

According to one of Bach's biographers, the Variatons were composed at the request of a count in Dresden, to be performed by his harpsichordist (a certain Herr Goldberg) during the count's long sleepless nights. The purpose was succesfully fulfilled and Johann Sebastian was generously rewarded.

Let us now listen to the Aria. The version is from the Taiwanese pianist Chen Pi-hsien.

Goldberg Variations - Aria (3:13):

Many, many years later, The Silence of the Lambs, a novel by Thomas Harris, was published. Its male protagonist, the fearsome killer psychiatrist, Dr Hannibal Lecter, is a great lover of the music of Bach. Later, the homonymous film was unveiled; on it we can see that minutes before Dr Lecter savagely killed the police officers who guarded him, the prisoner  is enthralled to the aria of the Variations, just as we do it right now.

The officers are taking the supper to him and have to open the gate of the cage where Hannibal is locked. During this scene, parts of 6th and 7th variations can be heard.

6th Variation 

7th Variation

While the hideous killing occurs, part of the 12th, 13th and 21th variations are played. Here you can listen to them in their entirety:

12th Variation 

13th Variation

21th Variation

Dr. Lecter got rid of his jailers. He devoured a chunk of the face of one of the guards, and trashed to death the other one. Once the mission is accomplished, ecstatic, Hannibal enjoys the shorter, final version of the aria.

Sensitive souls can be found anywhere!

Bach: "Air" from Suite No. 3

Monument to J.S. Bach, in Shanghai

Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750, the same year when an eminent English doctor, who happened to be in Leipzig at the time, recommended the great musician an ophthalmic operation to avoid blindness. Overcoming his initial reticence, Johann Sebastian agreed. The eminent doctor carried out the operation, but it failed. Then, the eminent doctor performed a second operation. This time, the father of Western music became completely blind.

Fortunately, Bach had already produced almost all the 1087 pieces included in the Bach Work Catalogue (BWV for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis); he had tried practically all musical forms, with the exception of the opera, a genre he never tackled.  

Johann Sebastian composed four orchestral suites, of which suite No. 3 is one of the best known of all his orchestral production. This suite, also called Overture, consists of a succession of the dances of the time, whose French names —allemande, courante, bourrée, sarabande and others, ending with a gigue— reflect the influence of the French court during XVI and XVII centuries, period during which such structure was all the rage. The second movement of Suite No. 3 is an “air” that has become even more popular than the suite itself. Its musical beauty is sustained by a central melody that effectively interweaves with other melodic lines lead by a violin and a viola.

JS Bach. Air from Suite No. 3. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra



Following Bach’s death, these suites fell into complete oblivion. They were heard again, like so many of Johann Sebastian’s other work, only since February 1838, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the complete Suite No. 3 in Leipzig.

There are many versions for different instruments for this “air”. One of these, arranged for violin and orchestra by a German composer during the 19^th century, was most influential in establishing the popularity of the piece. Transposing the “air” from the original D major key to G major, he made it possible to play the main melody on one string only, the G string of the instrument. Thus, the moniker, "Air on the G string" was born.

Back in the 60s, the jazz pianist Jacques Loussier completely “modernized" it, creating a radical change in the atmosphere of the piece. Accompanied only by a bass and percussion, this jazz version would have struck with astonishment poor Johann Sebastian.

Thanks to Mendelssohn, we can say Bach is still with us. Thanks to Jacques, we can say Bach is one of us.

Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 20 - Part II and III



A signal to Mozart's grave at St. Marx Cemetery, in Austria

Round about the time of the composition of Concerto No. 20, Mozart's fame was already considerable. A Vienesse newspaper, commenting on a concert, mentioned his "well-deserved reputation" and pointed out that Wolfgang was "known universally".

To be truthful, his main source of income was still his music lessons, but he also gave concerts with some regularity, playing as piano soloist. In addition, he had the proceeds from his numerous publications. Considered individually, thet were poorly paid, but the total amount of their sale would have helped him to make ends meet.
Last but not least, one has to consider the earnings accrued from the performances of his operas. Not all yielded all that Mozart would have liked, but some of them certainly did.

Concerto No. 20 - 2nd movement: Romance. Piano: Ivan Klansky

This is why is intriguing that the couple suffered persistent economic hardship, to the extreme that Mozart had to borrow money from some fellow Masons. At the same time he would ask them to send him students, stressing the fact that he charged "low prices".
A number of scholars blame poor Konstanze, accussing her of extravagance, frivolity and a fondness for luxury. Part of it might be true. But one has to consider that, if one year Konstanze was not pregnant it was only because she was sick. Therefore, I prefer the more pragmatic first-hand opinion of Nannerl: "My brother did not know how to run his finances, and Konstanze was unable to help him on this".

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35. The following day the myth of the mass grave and the storm was born. None of it is true. Although no one recorded the exact spot of his resting place, he was not buried in a pauper's grave. And on 6th of December, Vienna saw one of the most placid and sunny afternoons of that Autumm.

Concerto No. 20 - Third movement - Allegro 

Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 20 - Part I

Konstanze Mozart

When in 1780, Wolfgang Amadeus learned that his first love, Aloysia, had just married another man, he did not dispair or contemplate suicide. (Göethe had not yet given to the world his Sorrows of Young Werther...). Instead, he turned a little and set his sights on the black eyes of little Konstanze, who was one year younger than her sister Aloysia, and was just hanging around over there.

They married in 1782, and the following years, up until his dead in 1791, were probably the happiest in Wolfgang's entire life. Two years later and still deeply in love, Konstanze and Wolfgang would write to Mozart's younger sister Nannerl, on the eve of her marriage: "We wish that you two will live together as harmoniously as we two".

They immersed themselves in the dazzling artistic life of the Vienna of that era. The year 1785 found Mozart totally dedicated to his intense musical life; a period that proved to be very productive regarding publications.
Because of its popularity, the Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 20 in D minor stands out amongst his work of that time.
Beethoven, by then a fifteen years old lad, would maintain this concert in his repertoire for many years. Additionally, he would compose the cadenzas (i.e. the solo sections improvised by the interpreter or played according to prepared guidelines) for this and other concerts.

Concerto No. 20 - First Movement
The initial movement begins with a two-minute introduction by the orchestra, after which enters the piano soloist. I have chosen a version by the excellent Czech pianist Ivan Klansky, because of his amazing technique. He plays with such ease that his gestures seem to directly communicate with his emotions.
I apologize for the unavoidable cuts.

Mozart's sonata in A Major - II

Jenízaros - Turkish Imperial Guard soldiers

The trip to Vienna imposed by the Prince-Archbishop was perhaps the last straw; Mozart realized that the time had come to ditch Colloredo and his prosaic court once and for all. For this reason, he began to act more and more discourteously towards the Archbishop. He started by staying away from the visits that every servant was supposed to pay to Colloredo each morning, and then he added some other signs of independence and rebellion.

Wolfgang mischief did not go unnoticed. Colloredo forced him to arrive at the table after the house servants, but before the cooks. For Mozart, this was just too much and he requested an interview with Colloredo, grudgingly granted by the Archbishop. In there, the dispute got out of hand.
This was such an unpleasant situation, that still angers me, more than two hundred years later.

The quarrel must have been very tough. In a letter to his father, Wolfgang reports that Colloredo called him "a scoundrel, a rascal, a vagabond". After stoically enduring these insults, Wolfgang asked:
"-So, Your Grace, is not satisfied with me?
To which the Archbishop replied:
"-What, you dare to threaten me, you scoundrel? There is the door! Look out, for I will have nothing more to do with such a miserable wretch."
"At last, I said:
"-Nor I with you"
"-Well, be off."

This is the point where some scholars mention the kick-up-the-backside issue. The strict truth is that the following day Mozart handed in his resignation, which was accepted a month later.
Thus, Wolfgang became the first musician in history who decided to do business single-handedly. To dramatize a little, he would have cut the tickets, helped the audience to their seats and only then he would have sat to play the piano.

This new lifestyle would demand Mozart to be aware of fashion. During those years, the European society had a keen ear to the fashionable marches performed by the Turkish Imperial Guard. No doubt, Mozart's Rondo alla Turca would have responded to such trend.

Third Movement - Rondo alla turca