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BACH CONCENTUS PLAYS OVERTURES Bach Concentus was founded in 2007 by Ewald Demeyere and Giulio D'Alessio. This Brussels based orchestra, playing period instruments, devotes itself to the instrumental and vocal repertoire of the Baroque and Classical periods, specializing in works by the Bach dynasty and more. Important to Bach Concentus are the original sound concept, the historical performance practice, the use of historical instruments and the central role of the basso continuo. On this first CD Bach Concentus performs Overtures by Johann Bernhard Bach and Telemann. An interview with Ewald Demeyere, the artistic director. Ewald, can you give in a few words a presentation of Bach Concentus and its founders Ewald Demeyere and Giulio D’ Alessio? Well, Bach Concentus is an orchestra not with a fix but with a variable disposition. In other words, depending on the repertoire we are playing, the orchestra can take chamber music dimensions or rather becoming a big Baroque orchestra with a large string and wind groups. Although Bach Concentus is free-lance based, we always try to work with the same core musicians; I find that very important in order to maintain the typical Bach Concentus sound and musical approach. Now, the initiative to found a new orchestra did not come from me but from a very good friend and colleague of mine, Giulio D’Alessio, Baroque violinist and also manager. He thought that Belgium needed a new Baroque orchestra with a young, dynamic person who is also a so-called ‘specialist’. Apparently he saw all those qualities in me… I find it highly important to inform myself as well as I can with the performing, textual and theoretical issues of the repertoire we do. I cannot only ‘play and enjoy the music because I feel it that way’. We have to learn as much as possible about the reference frame of a piece. One can compare this to learning a language. In the beginning it is hard to speak a new language; one has to think constantly about its syntax, its vocabulary etc. But gradually the grammar and the words become a part of yourself, so that you can focus more on the contents and on the way you deliver your speech. This process is very similar when learning about Baroque performing practice. When one tries to acquire certain principles, which are deviating from and even contradicting modern practice, a lot of students find it very hard at that stage to still play in a communicative way. But when they gradually learn more about the Baroque musical language and its fundamentals, they start to realize that this performance practice is so much more convincing, so much more rewarding than when applying, which unfortunately happens still too much today, modern principles to this kind of music. What was your motive to found a new ensemble? Apart from the motivation described above, I mainly wanted to reinstall the bass group as leader of an ensemble or orchestra. Nowadays the musical attention goes very often to the melody instruments (violin, oboe, flute etc.) disfavoring the intended role of the bass. In other words, I wanted to avoid that the function bass group is restricted to following the ‘sopranos’. This implies that the balance in the orchestra will be different. Obviously this does not imply relentless bass playing without taking anything into account about what the upper voices do. The booklet belonging to the CD has outstanding high quality and gives much information about the Overtures in general. Bach Concentus has recorded the complete Overtures (4) of Johann Bernhard Bach. What about Johann Sebastian, did he admire cousin’s overtures? Yes, Sebastian personally copied and performed (some of) these overtures while he acted in Leipzig as the artistic director of the Collegium Musicum, a student orchestra founded by Telemann in 1702. He would not have done this when he did not approve of the music. There are some other features which hint at Sebastian’s admiration for his cousin. Firstly, the fugue subject of the Overture in G minor of Bernhard Bach is quasi literally copied by Sebastian serving as the opening subject of the first movement of the B minor Flute Sonata BWV 1030. Secondly, Sebastian applies the principle of concert en ouverture, an overture in which the soloist is confined to a concertante role in (nearly) every movement, to BWV 1067, just as Bernhard does in the G minor Overture (violin for Bernhard, flute for Sebastian). The role of the basso continuo player is an important one, in a way just like the conductor does nowadays. Can you inform us a bit more how this works when performing a composition? Baroque music was mostly not conducted. This implies that the rhythmic drive, the impetus should come from the bass group and, more specifically, from the keyboard player, who, in the case of Bach Concentus, has the final responsibility. When performing on a harpsichord, I know that ensemble is easier than when playing the organ. The sound character of the harpsichord is such that it has that percussive element which is so functional when playing orchestral music. This also means that I am convinced that the realization of the continuo should be functional, i.e. helping the colleagues to play together. I am not sure that the highly improvisatory style with lots of arpeggios and figuration used very often today is a valuable help to the orchestral musician… When the continuo part is performed on the organ, which sound lacks attack, this requires from the other musicians an even more attentive attitude to togetherness. In works for soloists (instrumental and vocal) the soloist can make his improvisations. I assume for an orchestra there will be no place for improvisations and ornamentations. What is your view in this matter? From the moment several musicians play together one part, there should be utmost agreement on everything (phrasing, bowing, fingering, articulation, dynamics etc.). Obviously this includes ornamentation. In other words, during rehearsal we decide where ornaments should be added to the part. But during performance of an orchestral piece, personal improvisation is completely excluded! How is the harpsichord tuned and what is the importance of the temperament related to the other historical instruments in the ensemble? The most typical aspect of Baroque temperaments is the fact that they are unequal. Basically this means that the more accidentals a key has, the less ‘pure’ a key will sound. Without becoming too technical, this also means that, contrary to modern practice, the fifths on the string instruments are not tuned pure but smaller than pure, similar to those on the keyboard. This is an important feature within the concept of intonation since vibrato (both on string and wind instruments) is not used, again contrary to modern practice, as a general aspect of producing sound but rather, as the sources describe it, as an ornament! Please, give us some explanation about the typical sound characteristics of the historical instruments Bach Concentus uses on the CD? In general one can say that the sound aesthetics of Baroque and modern instruments are opposite. On the one hand, modern instruments (and its players, including singers) pursue equality of each note, whether it is a low, middle or a high note. Register breaks are considered weaknesses showing a lack of technical skill. However, this difference are highly valued by, amongst others, seventeenth and eighteenth century musicians and ergo reflected in their instruments. With Bach Concentus we want also to explore how so-called weaknesses in the instrument can add to the musical discours. And can you tell something about the differences and gradations in timbre between the technical perfect sound performance on a CD nowadays and the original sound concept in 18th century? I think this question should be broadened to any kind of live performed music. Anyway, applied to, say, a performance of Bernhard Bach’s Overtures, there is a clear difference between doing a concert version or rather a recording. When an orchestra plays a concert – whether this occurred in the 18th century or today – the acoustical conditions highly influence the different performance parameters. Consider a large hall with quite a long reverb. It is obvious that these conditions imply less varied timbre and dynamic possibilities. However, the general sound production is helped by these acoustics; instruments tend to sound better with (some amount of) reverb. On the other hand, when the hall is rather small and dry, one has a much wider palette but every instrumentalist has to pay the utmost attention to the quality of each sound. Making a (studio) recording of these pieces is a somewhat different story. Firstly, there is no audience but a sound engineer, who listens in a completely different way than an average audience. His task is basically to judge which version is the most convincing, flawless one. This implies that the final result of a recording highly depends on the approach/kind of focus of the sound engineer. Some amongst them judge technical perfection the ultimate goal of recording. That the communicative quality of the playing is perhaps less convincing than during performance is for that kind of recording engineer of lesser concern. And obviously you have also sound engineers who prefer to have a lively performance, even when this implies imperfections. I think one should find a balance between both. Technical perfection is an illusion anyway, so making a strong musical, historically informed discourse is what I aim at. Still, one can get very annoyed when listening several times to the same mistake on a disc. I thank you very much for this interview by e-mail. I wish Bach Concentus good luck in future. You are welcome! © 2009 Interview Heerlen - Brussels by Frans Waltmans
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