Eliot Fisk plays Bach: Cello Suite VI
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- For more information please visit:
www.bostonguitarfest.org
Cello Suite VI
J. S. Bach (Trans. Fisk)
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavotte I
Gavotte II
Gigue
Eliot Fisk, guitar
Boston Guitarfest 2015
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory; June 20, 2015
Video and audio production by Brian Dixon
Audio capture by Nick Davison
One of the most difficult Suites. I am amazed. I have followed you for 30 years. Ever since you performed "Forlorn Hope by John Dowland". I was instantly hooked. Thank You Eliot. A tribute to aspire ones to do what you have done and carry on. Segovia coached you well.
A magnificent performance; thank you
Baroque trills- Eliot Fisk's execution of trills is just astounding!
Charles Lime I completely agree, Fisk’s trills are just magical!
Hi, Elliott! I've just read the comments here. I knew Eliot when he was 14 years old in Oscar Ghiglia's master class at the MAA in Aspen. Even then, he played Bach as if he were in control of an unenclosed Flentrop organ, sitting on the right hand of god. Technique to burn, Eliot has become Mr. Fisk, perhaps contained by an instrument too small. However, in pushing the envelope, he teaches everyone so much about music: untempered, tuning the guitar to the key of the piece); about dynamics (risking much); about hierarchical voice importance (surprising the listener with important inner voices, and about lamentable present-day abandonment of dense period ornamentation). Mr. Fisk is a tour-de-force, a storm, unapologetic about pulling our strings. Eliot has more in common with E. Power Biggs than with the equally giant Ida Presti.
Douglas Chapman brilliantly said, I couldn't agree more!
Finally, a comment from a discerning listener worth reading. Fisk is a brilliant musician who takes risks others dare not consider.
Finally! someone completely gets Eliot and his playing. Magnificent comment about an exceptional artist
Sorry, the third string is out of tune, nice attempt.
I've listened to Yo-yo Ma and Rostropovich and other cellist play this suite. Their Bach interpretations are very similar in phrasing and tempo. I'm and amateur classical guitarist and listened to classical guitarists play this suite also. Kazuhito Yamashita does a very good job maintaining aforementioned phrasing and tempo. I have no idea how this interpretation passes as good Baroque music.
Eliot es, de alguna manera, un genio incomprendido, un tipo que va más allá de las posibilidades reales del instrumento y de la técnica. Puedes amarlo u odiarlo, pero difícilmente quedarás indiferente. Yo prefiero admirarlo y agradecer su tremendo aporte a la guitarra.
Questo è in parte vero. In parte, appunto, perché alla fine bisogna fare i conti con la musica...
Leonardo Rozas Villegas no podría estar más de acuerdo con tu comentario.
00:03 Prelude
04:34 Allemande
10:14 Courante
13:50 Sarabande
17:38 Gavotte I & II
20:25 Gigue
Strong performance! Wish I had chops like yours! Thank you for posting.
Holyyyy.
Sounds awesomely awesome.
Eliot Fisk is the bomb.
Inspirational. Fresh interpretation. He plays with a lot of volume. Brilliant. Wonderful to watch. Interesting change-ups in tone to keep it interesting. Must take a lot of sacrifice to be able to play so well. Thanks!
Amazing technique and never boring.
Eliott, you are the master of the Baroque ornament. Mind-boggling. Thank you.
Un genio de la guitarra !!!
Se ve todo el arte que tienes !!
Muchas gracias por hacer pública esta versión, es un regalo !
Mis condolencias por varios comentarios de personas que no pueden ver más allá de una nota limpia o un sonido determinado (que ya de por si es subjetivo), y además de ello, criticar ofensivamente. Es sencillo escudarse tras un perfil y criticar a uno de los más grandes aristas que ha tenido la guitarra !!
Astonishingly passionate performance. I love Fisk’s playing
To me it's some of the freshest and purest sounding classical guitar of the times The hall sounds great with his guitar... I hear lush harmonic landscapes resonating in the background... not to mention the incredibly clear attack and evenness of each note.
I can understand why something so beautiful would be controversial, though
Max Davis I agree it’s a fabulous performance. Everything you wrote rings true for me too. This is some of the jammingest and most lyrical bach for guitar on CZcams. The folks that don’t understand it and/or are highly critical of it will probably never achieve 1/10 of Elliot Fisk’s greatness!
I it's jealousy, and unjustified criticism.
This is one of the best performances I have ever heard of this piece.
Super excelente, no me canso de escuchar este arreglo del maestro, tiene tanta vida, tanta energía, sin duda un pase gratis a otra dimensión... very nice.
Masterful! Original and powerful!
Leon Petersen You've said a mouthful, all true in my book. Mr. Fisk is certainly qualified to post his awesome talent. His playing is inspiring, and a gift to be shared on CZcams. Those who command the literature can certainly make constructive comments. Those who command the literature and know the period, the composer, the style and interpretation can certainly make constructive comments. Anyone else can certainly make comments but what value are they? As a classical pianist, the parallel can be said of Vladimir Horowitz. As mortals, we recognize the rise and fall of virtuosity, mostly as a function of age, but there are many factors. I'm guessing anyone that would be interested in posting their qualifications as a player or musicologist would give the average musician who's inspired by genius a better idea as to how to categorize the comment.
Bach in the Guitar Superb Great Performer and interpreter..Great Sound
This is not an easy suite even for cellists. Like Fisk or not, he went for and owned his interpretation. Nothing robotic or perfect about it, very human and from memory.
yep, stamped his character on it, brilliant
He is as flamboyant with his fingers as Paganini was with his bow. How can the next guitarist follow that.
What a completely amazing tour de force performance by the inimitable Eliot Fisk. This wonderful musician never ceases to amaze me in any recordings I've heard of him, and I can see live he's just as good if not better. Thank you for this wonderful performance!
It is very rare and hard to make people headbanging with Bach! And somehow so cool😎
haha! nope. it's pretty easy to headbang to bach. he was an ostinato-master. i know what i'm writing about, because beside being a lifetime bach fan i'm kinda metalhead as well😊. although it depends on the interpretation. a lot of classical musicians are not able to feel music metrically, which is an essential aspect of pop and rock music for instance. p e a c e !!!
The Sarabande was stunning!
His way of supporting the guitar looks so secure!
Finally! A true, imaginative, fresh and exciting interpretation of Bach's music on the guitar. Eliot is first and foremost an artist, then a musician and then a guitar player of the highest order. Someone who understands this music and cares about the magic behind the notes and the historical perspective more than the clean guitar tone.
+Giovanni Piacentini You must be joking? He didn't managed to squeeze a single minut of music out of this. This is like a wrestling match with guitar not playing. Sorry dude.
+sargijapunk well..... i'd love to watch and listen a video of your's and see how much you can improve Baroque music on Guitar.......
You may hate or love Fisk's playing but...... we'll never ever get to his position in life.... so careful with comments....
Well you are right about that,, no doubts, but I am not here to admire his position in life, but to listen to his performance and enjoy the music. If only people who were in certain positions were allowed to criticize (does same apply for positive critique as well?) we would have very few books and articles about music written. Anyway even if I will never be in position to play this suite on a stage, and will ever never be in his position in life, I can surely listen to some other musician's playing this suite and I can make a difference between two prestations. It might be just a subjective impression, but I can also speak about some technical details such as tuning, clearness, timings, tone quality, and most importantly shaping of musical ideas. Also having understanding of an idea and being able to execute that idea are not same thing. Even Fisk might have wonderfull understanding of this suite, but his execution maybe is not on par with what he imagined (no idea though only Eliot can answer that). I don't know; I own few of Fisks recordings'. His Segovia recording is impeccable as well as Paganini's caprices. But his Scarlatti Sonatas are awfull, just like this performance. Sometimes I wonder how one can play that Paganini at that level of virtuosity as he did and yet do so bad with Scarlatti. There are also som YT performances of him where is godlike, yet there are some totally awfull like this one. This variation is a bit of mysteri to me. Just as a note, I also have his Berio CD, and I really can't tell anything since music is so weird and freed from any human value a music could possibly have, so it's really hard to tell if he plays it well or bad, so on that one I will have to believe that he did excellent jobb.
Sargijapunk Ti rispondo in italiano perché non conosco l'inglese, oramai c'è google traduttore :)
Do del tu anche per semplicità di traduzione da parte del software.
Tu hai centrato pienamente il problema. Fisk è sicuramente un genio, io l'ho ascoltato ben tre volte dal vivo e lo conosco abbastanza bene. Però si rimane basiti, stupiti, interdetti dal fatto che accanto ad una esecuzione geniale e sublime ce ne siano altre imbarazzanti e pessime.
Fisk è un artista molto particolare e sicuramente vale la pena andare a vederlo dal vivo, perché su 100 brani "stuprati", può uscire dal cilindro quell'unica interpretazione geniale e che rimarrà per sempre impressa nella nostra memoria.
Sargijapunk
Google translate my post:
You have fully achieved the problem. Fisk is definitely a genius, I have three times heard live and I know him well enough. But it remains stunned, amazed, dumbfounded by the fact that next to a brilliant and sublime execution there will be more embarrassing and bad.
Fisk is a very special artist and definitely worth going to see him live, because about 100 songs "raped", it can get out of that one brilliant interpretation cylinder and that will remain forever etched in our memory.
Wonderful pizzicato passages at Gavotte II mov. !!! Start at 18:53
Tran Duc Tai
It’s all pizzicato.
Duh...
For those of you complaining about the “tuning issue”, understand that there were different tuning systems in this period and this Fisk is likely doing this intentionally.
It sounds off to our ears because we are accustomed to our modern temperament.
ArwenMeow Yes, just yes. Fisk could play this music when he was 12 years old. He went to Yale for music before Yale even had a guitar instructor so he had to study with one of the world’s foremost baroque interpreters who actually played Harpsichord. He is playing the music like it was played when composed. Do some research.
But doing this on the guitar is a nono because it's equal tempered and you can't move the frets, so some of his intervals are way off, whereas on a cello, you can mostly play it in just intonation and it will sound amazing, same with the lute, although a bit more flawed, it's still better because it had movable frets, I'm not sure I'm that into this tuning, because it misses the point since the guitar is an equal tempered instrument.
Hey all...first, I think this is brilliant playing; sounds spontaneous, which of course Bach was all about. As far as tuning...it's a vast subject and not well understood. Bach likely used "Well Temperaments," which had 12 notes to the octave, but they were not equally spaced. Thus, each key had a slightly different interval structure. I'm sure Fisk is aware of this; but he would have had to have had a guitar refretted to those Bach tunings; doubt if that's the case here. Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier" was designed to show how a Well Temp could be taken through all 12 major and minor keys. Google Well Temperaments, lotsa info. (Btw, I think at first Fisk is just a tad out of tune in a few places, which is a built in problem with 12 tone eq temperament)
Millón de veces mas interesante que las demás interpretaciones...
Bravo Eliot. Quina felicitat mes gran poder arribar a tocar i a interpretar així i que nosaltres et poguem escoltar!
Excelente! Gracias por compartir!
This was really great. Yes, there seems to be a tuning issue, but this man's skill is profound and his interpretation fresh and dynamic. Thanks.
Brilliant performance.
In the internet you certainly can read really stupid things. Like the earth is flat, capitalism is good and that Fisk plays in a non musical style. The boldness of this man to play such an old and cannon piece and make it his own really speaks for itself. I know that not everybody has to agree but this is why Fisk is so great, he dares to play Bach in a way that is historically accurate but keeping his own style.
Eliot Fisk is the man. His Paganini is bursting with character.
Good job, so exciting and the trills are clean and crisp! Thanks for posting!
Wonderful, thank you for sharing!
terrific at bringing out the structure of the music
I will not refrain from making rash nor harsh comments. It sounds as though Fisk drags Bach through the sewage, then somehow, predominantly due to superior technique, manages to resurrect his musical core. The result is bizarre, maybe even pervertedly mysterious, but simultaneously sublimely interesting and fascinating.
ragnarkisten Bizarre is accurate. Superior - only if you are trying to make a classical guitar sound like a banjo. He can certainly play LOUD and right next to the bridge for that Uber nasal tonality.
'Uber nasal tonality' - 'Sul Ponticelli'/Ponticello' ? Literally meaning to be played at, or near the bridge, Bright, Nasal quality sounding).
Really? Thats how you are going to present your thoughts in a public forum?
Jon Yerby - Who are you addressing ?
At 9:14 Eliot's eyes bug out... I about fell out of my chair!
you classical guitar snobs are really fun at parties i bet. I thought this sounded fine.
where,s this part/
Opinions on this video will vary very starkly. We ask that you kindly refrain from making rash comments. Tis easy from the other side of a computer screen.
For those making wonderful comments, thank you. Eliot will appreciate them very much. Till then, keep making music!
Seeing es how I've seen his concerts in person and had several conversations with him, everything people ridicule him for are spot on. As an actual classical guitarist, he is an incoherent mess, speed is only impressive when it enhances the music, his speed NEVER DOES, seeing as how he hasn't been able to apply the speed since the early 90's.
Why is critique allowed only if positive, but not the negative one? Aren't all judgments valuable to Mr. Eliot?
BGFest I'm 36 now,but I remember listening to a broadcast on PBS with Elliott Fisk and other guitarists. his name will forever be in my mind. Amazing
So only positive comments ? What is this ?
I'm a fan....Fisk is a brilliant guitarist....but my comments are honest
Ah yes Eliot Fisk. A legend in his own mind. This is a complete display of his unique approach. It's really something when you can play Bach in new meters with no time signature or actual 'beat' to worry with - dynamics like a Spanish bull , and by using micro-tones, string buzzes, and other unusual intonation that you invent as you go along. Bravo maestro - it must be from those lessons with Segovia we've heard so much about.
lmfao
I would have known how Beautiful sounds the Baroque in the Guitar
Hell what was that all about someone got the speed on video wrong ?
In Allemande, with ornaments throughout, the voice is totally lost. And so is the music.
In Govotte I and II, I just stood agape.
Admirable try. Certain parts were beautiful.
grandissimo Eliot! !!
alla faccia di tutti quelli che hanno le orecchie foderate di sola pulizia di suono
un'intensità del genere se la sognano
BRAVOOOO
"alla faccia di tutti quelli che hanno le orecchie foderate di sola pulizia di suono
un'intensità del genere se la sognano " #ytmostidioticcomments
It's not bad tuning it's a baroque period temperament. sounds more interesting
Nope it's not baroque tuning.
DanielRatush could you explain this in further detail? I did study music but I'd be making things up if someone asked me to tell them how temperaments work..
www.kylegann.com/histune.html
I don't think you can change the temperament of a guitar since that would involve moving the frets. The fret positions lock the guitar into equal temperament. You could tune open strings against each other such that those relationships match some non-equal temperament, but moving up each string would still bring equal temperament into play. You can change the temperament of a lute with moveable frets for example
@@frtpwr This is a standard, 12 tone equal tempered guitar. There are a few people, like John Schneider and Wim Hoogewerf, who do have guitars with either interchangeable fretboards, or moveable frets. JS Bach likely tuned his claviers differently, depending on the tuning system he required. Often called "Well Tempered." Yes, Fisk is a bit out of tune in places here; but, that's exactly the problem with eq temperament. It's not possible to be in tune in all 12 keys.
Wonderful. Always loved that Eliot doesn't mind getting down with the guitar .... (slightly out of tune?)
Eliot......fantastic interpretation
love this interpretation! beautiful! is this your own arrangement? do you read right from the cello score?
Adam France From my research, Eliot transcribes pieces written for other instruments into guitar pieces.
He doesn't read from the original cello score and transcribe on the fly.
He writes the transcriptions out so there is a permanent copy of them and publishes them so they are available to all.
He is beautifully in tune for the piece.
Eliot tunes the guitar to the key of the piece he's playing.
Personally, I love listening to Eliot play guitar.
Such a lovely delicate touch and a wonderful, virtuosic command of the instrument.
And the transcription from cello to guitar sounds beautiful to me.
I would be intrigued to hear Eliot and Yo-Yo Ma play this as a cello/guitar duet sometime.
Eliot's transcription for the guitar of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Violin was absolutely brilliant.
I loved hearing violinist Itzhak Perlman play them so masterfully on the violin as only he could.
Then, when I heard Eliot had transcribed the 24 Caprices for classical guitar, and recorded an entire album of them, I rediscovered them anew and fell in love with Paganini's genius all over again.
And since Paganini was as virtuosic on classical guitar as he was on violin, hearing the 24 Caprices for violin transcribed so beautifully to guitar seemed entirely appropriate to me.
A fitting tribute to the compositional genius of Niccolo Paganini.
As much a fitting tribute as are Eliot's transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach's cello pieces to classical guitar.
tiene sus momentos que sus ideas son exelentes,
Eliot sure divides people.
Bravissimo!!!! 😍😍😍
5:04 His shoes are so slippery on that hard surface that he can't get his legs under him...
I love the freshness of the courante, in the way that it is so different from a cellists interpretation. I will have to agree with many of the other comments and say that the allemande was ruined by the tempo. As my piano teacher says, "SLOW DOWN"
lata pura y lleno de derrapadas en los tempos
Bravissimo M. Eliot! Spero a Presto 🤗
Sorry. Fisk knows what he is doing. He doesn't need a mechanical tuner--he might use one but he can tune without one. There are more ways than one to tune a guitar. To speak bluntly, I trust a player like Fisk's ear sooner than the ears of his armchair critics.
What technique. Speechless man
Eliot interprets it superbly
I thoroughly respect such accomplishment, like the arrangement quite a lot, appreciate his boldness and devotion, understand his approach to tuning yet still do not like it much. To me it sounds like banjo.
Hello Eliot, awesome skills, can you teach us lessons? I subscribe, greetings.
Amazing.....even though slightly off tune...would prefer it played on a old Ramirez or a Fleta. Bravo
all elements fusion
these people who complain about Fisk's "sloppiness".... to what shall I liken them? (to paraphrase somebody) they are like chihuahuas pissing on a cathedral...
Eliot uses the Ida Presti and Andres Segovia right hand curved wrist position with knuckles parallel to the strings. All the best players do this.
tune bruh
4:06 Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Eliot Fisk's performances do have many technical errors but there is also real human expression happening. A perfectly sterile linear execution of notes is not appealing to everyone. What Fisk lacks in technique he makes up for in obvious passion. I believe his contributions to the classical guitar repertoire have paved the way for others with better technical skills to do things they never would have tried otherwise. I don't understand what overstating his flaws accomplishes. He is still a major pioneer in classical guitar music.
Actually it sounds great!
What is with the tuning? It doesn't sound like standard tuning... But I kinda liked this performance, very eccentric. And as a player who is in a constant struggle to play Bach 'correctly', it is very refreshing to hear all these dissonances. Like he doesn't even care :).
if it's played in its original key of D major, then tuning would be drop D
I know this guy personally and I am fascinated!!
Isn't the guitar way out of tune? Fisk usually gives very good interpretations, sometimes with imperfect technique. I could not enjoy this one due to the tuning.
put him in jail for his imperfect technique - or not?
yes
Sigh! When you have this much technical prowess, why not make music instead of slamming the piece to pieces?
Should've tuned the guitar...
How about tuning the guitar first?
+FidelKastrat
Hey I thought that it was just me. All the notes sound wonky to me. Whoops.
+BeeElectric No, it is not just you, the guitar is really badly out of tune. I bet he put it in tune with tuner, but he didn't fine tuned it, so it gets out of tune when he playes on 7th fret and beyond. It is painful to hear indeed. I have hearing (medically proofed :D) way over normal when it comes to high frequencies and it is like someone is pulling my teeth out, every time he goes higher on frets.
+FidelKastrat +BeeElectric I agree the tuning could be better. But Fisk is making some radical -- and I thing rather applaudable! -- choices on how to play dynamically interestingly *in front of an audience*. Unlike most other guitarists, he pushes the envelope on how to get the most sound out of the instrument while maintaining the interpretation. As a recording, it's might not be suitable and the tuning might be considered quite bad. But please, take it from a professional singer (the voice is even harder to capture in a recording!), that a stage performance situation is a very different thing from any studio recording!
On the matter itself:
Firstly, Fisk is playing with a dropped D-string and judging from the many noise sounds from the string amplitude, seems to use low tension strings. Both factors make the strings more to tuning fluctuations due to the extended influence of finger pressure.
Secondly, Perfect tuning, even theoretically, is impossible on any fixed-tone (= also fretted) instrument (Pythagorean comma). On a keyboard instrument, one chooses a temperament. When playing contemporary or (late) romantic music (piano), it's 99/100 times equal temperament. When playing Early Music, there are many variants like Kirnberger, Werckmeister, etc. depending on the temperament the composer had used. (On guitar choosing a temperament is really no use, since playing in higher positions is always giving tuning difficulties due to the non-corresponding ratio between scale length and string guage.)
Practically, a skilled classical guitarist chooses to tune the open strings to eachother, or use corresponding harmonics between different strings, e.g. 6th string in 5th pos = 5th string in 7th pos. Incidentally he might choose to tune to a key which means tuning as many of the the fingered 8ths to eachother, and tuning the 5ths and 3rds perfect in the most used (lower) positions. (Higher positions are no use, see above.) When you listen carefully, some chords are actually quite perfectly in tune, mostly when he plays in middle range dynamic and more towards the nut. So my best guess is he tuned to the key in a lower position.
Or... he might just have tuned quickly with a device since -- especially with his stage-playing style -- guitars are impossible to tune perfectly anyway. And why lose time tuning, when one can just let the *music* speak for itself? ;)
Ehmm, dude, without a tuned guitar there is no *music* as Fisk was so kind to illustrate for everyone.
+sargijapunk listen more carefully man.
Bluegrass Bach is all the rage, I hear.
You sir, have made my day. Thank you 😂😂😂
I hate third strings. But thanks for showing its okay. Strangely refreshing to hear the human touch. I take it the room temperature is on the lower side.
hasty speed kills the natural flow and interesting modulations of this music.
He has his own special, personal, excellent and exciting way of playing his instrument, just like every professional guitarist has.
Modern understanding of Bach , but not bad. Correct dynamics, but unfortunately not a good choice for the instrument Eliot Fisk anyway metallic tones . I congratulate me was really great . Thank you, Mr. Fisk
True, any idea the luthier
Nothing wrong with being very personal and flamboyant, but to me it is obvious that Elliot Fisk hasn't got enough technique to play all of these pieces as he wants to play them from the point of speed. And yes that is an assumption, but I can't imagine he hears these pieces inside the way he plays them. Mr Fisk changes the score as a practical result of this approach and it is not getting any better by that. In my opinion he puts himself too much in the center and not the music and I am not against that, Segovia and Bream are perfect examples in which case that really works. Often it is said that the quality of mr. Fisk's playing is the fact that he takes risks. But the point is: his playing in many fast passages is not a risk but a prediction that these will be played sloppy. Risks are related to adventures and also can work out really well. When I want the adventure I rather listen to great improvisers like Allan Holdsworth or John mc Laughlin or the flute player with whom I play, the great Chris Hinze. Everything is a matter of taste of course and from that point of view I can honestly say it is not my cup of tea for the reasons I have just sketched. What I also want to say is that when mr Fisk playes at a tempo which does not prevent control off movements he really plays beautiful and poetic and more connected to himself as well as the listener, I rather hear that inner dimension, that emotional spectrum because I truly feel that in the essence he is a great musician.
Werckmeister XIII?
Where can I download the tabs?
Andy Dick plays guitar? Who Knew???
Great!
I'm not a fan of Fisk. However, this interpretation is new and different. That can't be said with most playing Bach. He plays with passion and a certain soul and that is worth more than technique. That being said, Fisk's technique is no where near as bad as people make out.
tune guitar
My plants stop growing and shortly afterward die when I listen to Fisk, anyone an idea how come?
DESCOMUNAL!!!
1:38
Fisk has super skills but something just don't sound right.
громкий звук и техника игры, но......
Fingerings revealed..
Bach dispensa comentários e Eliot Fisk também !!!
Eliot looks like Ed Wynn
Curious. Is that a Stephen Connor guitar? Anyone know?
+Robert Blanton Yes it is.
Yes!! Spruce top with Quilted Maple sides and back.
The guitar sounds terrible ! Jeez! Just get an old Ramirez already please!! Your guitar sounds like a Casio You! Ugh! Please!!!
I know right!
Why would u play the gavotte that fast, like why?
Eliot Fisk makes me feel nervous. I think he is a technician more than a musician. Don't like also his tone production. His sound is harsh. Not good for my ear.
Rien à voir avec le baroque,trop agressif,il y a bien mieux comme interprétation.