Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement

 
 
Wednesday, 15th October 2008

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the n/a site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Amazing Bach family come to life



Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 01 October 2007
At Home with the Bach Family - Artworks Concert, Blackthorpe Barn
The concert title invites the audience not just to listen to music, but imagine spending time with this most unusually gifted family.

Succeeding generations of Bachs excelled musically – even though there were a very few who didn't take it up – a
nd their family get-togethers must have been remarkable. The party would jump off with a hymn or two, and then they would get down to the serious business of singing, playing and entertaining themselves for hours on end.

This sympathetically-constructed programme followed some major Bach life events. Judith Russell read imaginative descriptions of the challenging circumstances they faced just to make a living.

Musicians were not always valued, and Johann Sebastian had to move his growing family several times to follow where the work was offered. He gave his second wife Magdalena, a singer, wonderful notebooks from which the musical offerings were chosen. Their children all had their own clavichords to practise on – fortunately for the neighbours, clavichords are relatively quiet keyboard instruments.

Lindsay Gowers' strong soprano solos included cantata extracts and arias. Another voice, perhaps a tenor, would have lent additional colour and support. Elizabeth Page set a lively pace on the recorder, particularly with the Telemann composition which the Bachs would undoubtedly have known. Although Malcolm Russell's rather solemn accompaniment needed a touch more Baroque sparkle, his explanations of the keyboard instruments were informative.

All this amidst the rural splendours of Blackthorpe Barn. The visual stimulus of the second Artworks exhibition surrounded the listeners. Helen Dougall's landscapes, Graham Portlock's vibrant photos and the ironic urban themes in Roger Gamble's acrylic paintings reminded us that creativity is confined neither to the past nor to music. The Artworks combination of modern art and classical music, in exceptional surroundings, has succeeded again.




The full article contains 309 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 01 October 2007 6:23 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Sudbury
 
 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.