Boxes and the Bach Archives

Whilst trying to fit my whole life into 12 Boxes to put on a ship pending my imminent relocation to Australia, I had a lot of time to listen to music, and found myself flitting between myriad styles from Jazz, to Indian wedding music, to electronic, to Chanson Française to the Beatles, to Bach Archives. So it wasn't a trip down memory lane just because of the stuff I was packing, but also for my lucky ears. I love rediscovering old favourites, they become all fresh and shiny once again, yet they will always have that air of nostalgia about them, no matter how long it has been since they saw the inside of my stereo.

I was talking to a friend about one of my all time favourite CDs, and we both agreed that it has to be one of the most beautiful recordings ever made. EVER! Definitely a desert island disc this one.....

It is a collection of works written by members of the Bach family that belonged to and greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S Bach treasured this collection, and took the time to correct some errors, complete missing parts and to write cover pages for some of them.

The large majority of works on this disc are by Johann Christoph Bach, eldest son of Heinrich Bach and uncle of Johann Sebastian. J.S. Bach particularly appreciated the works of his uncle and had performance materials made to perform many of them in church in Liepzig. The Lamento Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte is absolutely exquisite. Listen to this with the translation and make sure you have a box of tissues in close proximity. The most well know of Johann Christoph Bach's compositions is the stunning cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, which has a gorgeous chaconne with a beautiful, virtuosic obbligato violin line.

The CD also features the work of Johann Christoph's younger brother, Johann Michael Bach, also a prolific composer and organist of the castle chapel in Arnstadt, then later in Gehren, as well as a motet by Georg Christoph Bach, the brother of Johann Ambrosius (Johann Sebastians Father) based on Psalm 133, and composed for Georg Christoph's birthday in 1689, when both of his brothers came to visit him in Schweinfurt, where he was Kantor.

To have an insight into the musical language of J.S Bach's forefathers is already fortuitous...and the interpretation here is remarkable. The instrumental playing is amazingly expressive, and the singers communication of the text is stunning. Language is so all important in regards to the interpretation and performance of Baroque music. The repertoire of the 17th Century in particular is a style in which instrumentalists must strive to represent the spoken language as well as the musical language of the composer. Obviously when it is your mother tongue it is much more straightforward and in the end, that is what makes this recording so perfect. Here, every single musician understands and FEELS the text. In addition to this, their interpretation has a wonderful spontaneity, that is so often missing because of the cutting and pasting aspect of recording these days.

Funnily enough I am about to perform a cantata of another Bach family member, Johann Nicolaus Bach who was the son of the Johann Christoph Bach that I mentioned above) at the festival Bach en Combrailles in the Auvergne. I will probably run into a certain Rachael Beesley while I am there as well :)