{"id":50057,"date":"2016-05-08T16:48:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=50057"},"modified":"2016-05-08T16:48:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T16:48:40","slug":"that-bach-chaconne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=50057","title":{"rendered":"That Bach Chaconne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[ by <strong>Charles Cameron<\/strong> &#8212; JS Bach in Palmyra, in the DC Metro, and variously on YouTube ]<br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<p>I have to applaud <strong>Putin<\/strong> and the Russians for bringing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/europe\/21698422-russian-government-sent-one-countrys-top-orchestras-syrian-desert\">the full orchestra of the <strong>Mariinsky Theater<\/strong> from St Petersburg to Palmyra<\/a> now that the Islamic State has departed, with added kudos for choosing <strong>Bach<\/strong>&#8216;s towering <strong>Chaconne<\/strong> from his <strong>Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004<\/strong> as one of three works to be played there &#8212; by the <strong>Tchaikovsky Competition<\/strong> winning soloist <strong>Pavel Milyukov<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wzMxk8YM5N4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I say, I applaud the gesture. OTOH, British Foreign Secretary <strong>Philip Hammond<\/strong>, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2016\/05\/06\/putin-pal-sergei-roldugin-holds-concert-palmyra\/\">Breitbart<\/a>, called the event \u201ca tasteless attempt to distract attention from the continued suffering of millions of Syrians\u201d and said it \u201cshows that there are no depths to which the regime will not sink.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>This may not be the greatest performance of that work musically, but the work itself is extraordinary. <strong>Johannes Brahm<\/strong>s said of it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>It was famously this Chaconne that violinist <strong>Joshua Bell<\/strong> played &#8212; twice &#8212; with his violin case open to receive tips, in DC&#8217;s <strong>L&#8217;Enfant Plaza<\/strong> metro station, during a 45 minute anonymous session in which he netted $32. $32 and change, for a man whose upcoming performance with the <strong>National Symphony Orchestra<\/strong> at DC&#8217;s <strong>Kennedy Center<\/strong> (February 11, 2017) is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vividseats.com\/concerts\/national-symphony-orchestra-tickets\/national-symphony-orchestra-kennedy-center-concert-hall-2-11-2043278.html\">ticketed at $216 or $223<\/a>, depending on how well seated you wish to be&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the poorly recorded, hidden videocam account of the second of those performances, which starts at about the 30&#8217;15&#8221; mark:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aumDbzvv90I?start=1815\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Gene Weingarten<\/strong>&#8216;s description of the event in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/magazine\/pearls-before-breakfast-can-one-of-the-nations-great-musicians-cut-through-the-fog-of-a-dc-rush-hour-lets-find-out\/2014\/09\/23\/8a6d46da-4331-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html\">Pearls Before Breakfast<\/a>, won the Pulitzer..<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>For the fullest musical appreciation, here is that same Joshua Bell playing the Chaconne in 2014 in the <strong>DeLaMar Theater<\/strong>, Amsterdam: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/myXOrVv-fNk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Hillary Hahn<\/strong>, also superb:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QqA3qQMKueA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The no less beautiful <strong>H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Grimaud<\/strong>, playing the <strong>Busoni<\/strong> transcription for piano:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pkOH-MtUplU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And last, violinist <strong>Christoph Poppen<\/strong> plays the Chaconne, with added chorale motifs as reconstructed by violinist turned musicologist <strong>Helga Thoene<\/strong> sung by the <strong>Hilliard Ensemble<\/strong> &#8212; the culmination of the group&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/12\/02\/arts\/music\/02OEST.html?pagewanted=all\">celebrated album, Morimur<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z5D23cmVV04\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Post-modern adaptation, or quintessential Bach? Either way, I find the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bach-Morimur-Johann-Sebastian\/dp\/B00005ND3J\">entire project<\/a> enthralling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ by Charles Cameron &#8212; JS Bach in Palmyra, in the DC Metro, and variously on YouTube ] . I have to applaud Putin and the Russians for bringing the full orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater from St Petersburg to Palmyra now that the Islamic State has departed, with added kudos for choosing Bach&#8216;s towering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[837,788,53,1078,1047,480,91,440,1,364,1054,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bach","category-beauty","category-britain","category-is","category-isis","category-music","category-russia","category-syria","category-uncategorized","category-vladimir-putin","category-washington","category-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50057"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50087,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50057\/revisions\/50087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}