Bach: Keyboard Partita No.2 in C Minor, BWV 826 (Fray, Anderszewski)
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Bach’s Second Partita is unique in several ways. In terms of tone and expression it is one of the most dramatic of the partitas, and, unusually, opens with an elaborate 3-part Sinfonia and closes with a Capriccio in place of the customary Gigue. It is also the only partita of Bach's that is in 6, rather than 7, movements.
The Allemande of this suite is tightly motivically organized - just count how often the upper voice motif you hear in mm. 1-2 recurs - while in Courante the same four-semiquaver-note motif occurs in every bar, either as a turn or tirata. The courante also features some unusual phrase structures (6+6 is followed by 8+3+5) and a hemiola shift in each section’s concluding bar (to 6/4). The Sarabande, like most of Bach’s, is melancholy and profound in a way that takes it quite a distance from its origins as a French court dance, though it retains its fixed 4+4 phrase structure. The Rondeaux has the usual ABACAD-type structure, but Bach (uncommonly for the time) varies the refrain the last two times it recurs (note also the unusual voicing of the refrain’s sequential tail, which is hard to “hear” correctly, with the middle note of each bar belonging to the upper voice). The closing Capriccio is fairly well-known, and adheres pretty well to the archetypal texture, which basically means lots of imitative counterpoint (with the subject inverted in the 2nd half). It also has lots of gigue-like characteristics, which is why it end this soite: its 2 parts are exactly equal in length and have the gigue’s tonic-dominant polarity.
Fray has a clean, lyrical approach to this partita, with careful prioritization of lines and a Capriccio taken at an Argerich-like tempo. Anderszewski’s (live) performance must be one of the all-time great Bach renditions: beguiling and surprising and rigorous all at once. He’s got a gift for swapping line emphases and articulation that’s unmatched by any current performer. Some things to look out for: the pizzicato bass in the Sinfonia’s andante, the multi-tiered structure of the Courante which teeters but never topples, the hyper-pointillist approach to the Rondeaux, the punched-out bass notes in the Capriccio at 36:14, and the incredible dynamic control (the practically non-existent top voice) used in the repeat at 36:58 to let the middle voice sing clearly.
Fray:
00:00 - 1. Sinfonia (1:00 - Andante; 3:00 - Allegro)
04:31 - 2. Allemande
09:15 - 3. Courante
11:27 - 4. Sarabande
15:10 - 5. Rondeaux
16:30 - 6. Capriccio
Anderszewski:
19:32 - 1. Sinfonia (20:17 - Andante; 22:07 - Allegro)
23:39 - 2. Allemande
27:34 - 3. Courante
29:44 - 4. Sarabande
34:21 - 5. Rondeaux
36:03 - 6. Capriccio - Hudba
Oh, so Bach really didn’t write that humming part?
Sometimes even the greatest composers fall short of how a piece should be performed 😅 I do think it sounds better with "lyrics"...... "ooooooo, yee-teeee ta-taaaaa...."
😂😂
Woah. Bach's music never fails to remind me of the cogs of a beautiful machine. Like the inner workings of a handmade Swiss watch, in all their fine mathematical precision.
I really love this analogy. Thank you for this, I’m saving it.
cogs: makes me think of discord py LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Especially the rondeaux!
I have the same feeling!
I hear great depth, tragedy, soul, meaning. Sure, the heart that beats behind it may be finely tuned and precise, but I think that’s missing the forest for the trees.
Fray: (for me)
00:00 - 1. Sinfonia (1:00 - Andante; 3:00 - Allegro)
04:31 - 2. Allemande
09:15 - 3. Courante
11:27 - 4. Sarabande
15:10 - 5. Rondeaux
16:30 - 6. Capriccio
Not just a masterpiece, an icon
0:01
I understood the reference
The anderszewski version just teases in a way I can't get enough of...love it. Very playful and unique
Could've sworn Anderszewski's performance was recorded and edited. It was live. What a performance!
Nice that Anderszewski does the double dotted rhythms in the sinfonia intro, and dots the 16th's as well, as you should. This is the classic Italian and French period overture style and you double dot, it just was never notated that way, but performers knew the shorthand. Same for example in the opening chords of the Barbiere overture....the 16ths should be double dotted to 32nds on the beat, not before. Same in Verdi. Something you learn from Italian conductors and the tradition is handed down thru the generations. As one famous Italian conductor told me..."feel it, don't think it." Similar to swinging evenly notated 8th notes in jazz and pop.
Anderszewski's rendition left me stunned.
Thank you for the upload, description & small analysis!
Fray: 00:00 - 1. Sinfonia (1:00 - Andante; 3:00 - Allegro) 04:31 - 2. Allemande 09:15 - 3. Courante 11:27 - 4. Sarabande 15:10 - 5. Rondeaux 16:30 - 6. Capriccio
Thank you. As always, a pleasure to read your descriptions.
Thank you, Ashish, always interesting to read your insights. Thank you JS Bach! Bravo to both pianists, Anderszewski being the one who revealed new possibilities I had not heard before. However, GG's interpretation of this partita remains, for me, the one that draws the most intense engagement and emotional response every single time I listen to it.
Holy crap, Piotr played this fantastically!
Me gusta mucho esta versión, muchas gracias, es la más cercana de las que he escuchado a como yo la siento. Bravo❤️
You know it's good when you just have to close your eyes and take it all in instead of reading the score... Anderszewski's recording is absolutely incredible!
This is the best recording of this piece I have EVER heard.
Y a glenn gould tout simplement..
I was waiting for this. Bravo!!!
Anderszewski’s performance is exceptional
Просто превосходно)
Those violin-esque two-note slurs in the last two sections of Anderszewski's Sinfonia were so unexpected and delightful to me.
Very inventive and very melodic. Just masterpiece.
Обожаю все произведения И. С. Баха! Исполнение великолепное! ♥️Партиту \2 играла тоже .
This is what the soul sounds like
gosh! bach's mind must have been an engine to come with such a piece
I can't believe most of this is non-legato. Also Anderszewski is a god of polyphonic playing.
This must be a live concert there is applause at the end of this recording
Fray's performance of grave adagio is very reminiscent of Beethoven.
Terrific allegro of the sinfonía
David Fray is slowly becoming one of my favorite pianists
To be perfectly honest, while I like his recording very much, I think Anderszewski's performance of this Partita is the best that's ever been put to record. But Fray's performance functions a lot better as an introduction to this Partita -- something which puts Anderszewski in context.
Ashish Xiangyi Kumar havent heard Anderszewki yet, still listening to Fray, but you got me curious about him
Fray is my favorite of the younger generation of pianists.
TheGreenPianist I see you around a lot on CZcams ! Haha
haha yeah I'm all over classical music here
Since the other thread regarding how to appreciate Bach was so fruitful, I thought I might ask a slightly more general question: how does one listen for "structure" in general? As a brief picture of musical background, I've played classical piano for about 15 years, and can play something at the level of the first Chopin ballade in respectable fashion. However, I've never taken a single theory class and always played "from the heart," as my dear teacher used to say. Strangely, Beethoven was always my favorite composer - I found the form of his sonatas a positive constraining force for the seemingly constant, overwhelming emotion about to pour forth in all his music. But as a listener, I find it challenging to hear and simultaneously enjoy structural elements in music. For instance, when I listen to a Beethoven sonata I haven't played, I hear beautiful music - but not this playground of tremendous musical innovation and experimentation on existing traditions. Thoughts?
Ugh. This is an extremely good question, and needs like 3000 words to answer properly.
At points like this I seriously consider making "how I listen to music" videos, though it's more effort than I can realistically manage.
One of my teachers likes to say about certain things that "once you know, you don't have to do", and I think this is one of them. I'd just pick up a book about musical form and start there. With few exceptions, everything else is basically the meat and skin on that skeleton.
I think the Richard Atkinson videos are attractive and helpful with respect to this specific question! Ex: czcams.com/video/YTxYykhQZbI/video.html
It is a really good and hard question to answer. It depends what do you mean ? If you wanna "listen to the structure" you should check a few class about analysis. Many different things can guide you when you're listening or trying to analyse, figure out, a structure by listening. A bit of music history helps.
For exemple there's some musical elements that will tell you the period it was composed, and with the period and the tempo, you'll be able to guess what kind of "form" it can be, and with the form you will know that the structure should be this or that, and so on.
Maybe it doesn't mean anything to you like this but this is kinda the academic way to analyse by listening. You try to find clues that will guide you to the conclusion of a period, a form, a structure etc.
In the other hand, and what is really interesting to do, is to already know the form of the piece, and the structure it "should" have. Because then you're able to see and hear the contribution of the composer to the form, the little changes in the structure, what makes the piece special and the composer a genius.
Interesting you mention Beethoven as your favorite - he is mine as well. Beyond the hopeful, the muscular in his music - that emotional part that gets to you as well, his music is the most consistently mathematically perfect to me. He built from the constructionists Clementi and Haydn and learned not only how to complete a phrase, but balance it with the phrases that follow to create a harmonious whole. I don't even hear that level of perfection in Bach, in spite his common reputation of being the greatest mathematician. Bach has many "imperfect" or musically illogical statements in his compositions, although I think he may have done that by design just to add some variety to his works.
Buenas noches gran concierto de Bach
Awesome recording!
@Ashish Xiangyi Kumar Beautiful recordings! The two voice fugue in Allegro is absolutely breathtaking!
that small theme at 35:30 is nice
The first movement in the French overture style probably influenced Beethoven's "Pathetique" Sonata. Both pieces are in C minor with a dotted rhythm and in Tempo Grave.
what about the 4 first notes of the andante. Does it ring a bell? G-C-D-Eb
@@ignacioa4114 Don't forget the first four notes of the Sarabande movement, too.
@@ericrakestraw664 and don't forget the andante section of the first movement.
Ou Beethoven qui a inspiré Bach 😏
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT brought me here..
wonderfull Anderszewski
Awesome!
there's something really intimate about hearing Bach played on a piano and not a harpsichord
Hmmm, I never heard Bach on a harpsichord before since I’m a classical pianist.
that's absolutely true.....
Clavichords are a fantastic alternative to both.
They have dynamics like a piano, but a more precise sound. They're extremely lyrical and sensitive, which is also part of their biggest weakness: they're quiet.
Bach played on a clavichord is something else, though. It feels enlightening. (there are many poorly made clavichords on youtube that make the whole bunch look bad, though. Unfortunately.)
I agree, even Bach was noted to have adored the sound of the clavichord.
Bach didn't like the piano. He said it was an instrument with no future.
The House That Jack Built
Whow, noch nie habe ich das Capriccio besser gehört, als von Anderszewski.
Thanks Ashish
Love the Allemande. Interesting how the bass line is played very quiet...
perfect 👍🏻
I would like to hear it in a harpsichord but it’s lovely on a piano
2:59
It's odd that the Allemande is in cut-time at that slow a tempo.
Como me gusta la forma que tiene de interpretar a Bach, David Fray... coñooo de la madreeee
your house is fine little one...
11:27 15:10 16:30
I dont listen to much bach (sorta stuck in my ways with later composers like chopin liszt beethoven rachmaninov and debussy) but i love this (along with prelude in C major and C minor)
Bach have composed many preludes In major and minor
Because of certain video on CZcams I can't listen to this partita without having Gould's humming in mind
2 superb and quite different performances - as always AXK unerring.
wow .......great.....
Anyone else noticed how the prelude (Sinfonia) contains a mini "deceptive" allemande and courante?
where exactly? i am trying to learn music theory
@@jsb4812 maybe it's not true! (Good luck with your beautiful studies and don't believe what autoritairian teachers preach (even what I write here, lol)).
Anderszewski's Bach is exciting
I like the "wrong" note at 21:20. Sounds pretty amazing.
And I like how your pfp is Chopin when you mentioned that.
@@yuk_notkim7658 Not sure if Chopin himself would appreciate it as well 😄
well done kid
i love c minor
22:06
Interesting the parallels between this and Beethoven’s Pathetique. The opening grave adagio is reminiscent of the first movement. And the andante (1:00) is reminiscent of the third movement. There’s probably more parallels but that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far.
I'm here because of Lars von Trier.
19:11
Piotr is incredibly virtuoso and free and playfull. But also quite manieristic. I never heard a convincing interpretation of this piece yet.
Maybe it's just my mood right now. But the slower movements of this piece makes me feel incredibly sad.
listenwhatisayoh This piece is called a tearjerker and was meant to be a little bit saddening.
funny, Valentina Lisitsa also very recently has the BWV 826 up, but that was due to copyright conflict finally getting resolved. Hopefully you don't have to deal with such things. How do you avoid such problems?
Fray’s performance was just beautiful. A couple of notes that weren’t in the score at 14:12 puzzled me, but what’s a couple of notes here and there?
1:00 eragasm x2
Was the Anderszewski recording ever released on CD, or did you grab it off the live broadcast? I'd really like to have it. :-)
Superphilipp It's from his CD Live at Carnegie Hall.
4:08, 20:17, 22:07, 23:14
The capriccio doesn't exactly share the tonic-dominant polarity of the gigues. The first section of the capriccio doesn't change key--while the section ends on a dominant chord, the music hasn't modulated: we are on V, but not in it. (The closest f-sharp appears about 17 measures back, and the nearest modulatory feint is to f minor, not g.) Likewise, the second section starts on V rather than in V, and takes only three measures to arrive at c minor root position .
The first sections of all but one of the other gigues in the keyboard suites do modulate, either to V or to the relative major. Interestingly, that one exception, which behaves similarly to the capriccio in this regard, occurs in the very next partita, the one in a minor. Was Bach thinking about this capriccio when he wrote the a minor gigue? The partitas were published in order, one per year, starting in 1726--were they written in order?
3:00 Eargasm!
1:42
where can I find this sheet music? (the urtext edition)
3:00 ❤
If your going to play the Capriccio "at an Argerich-like tempo" it needs to be clean, I prefer Anderszewski's performance. I agree with Dobson, it is exceptional.
I posted this before, but are you going to upload Bhrams' Sonata in C Major Op. 1? You already have the other sonatas posted so might as well complete the set.
Yes, but I don't have it lined up for anytime particularly soon.
There's so many wonderful versions of this one. But I think I still have a crush on the recording by Martha Argerich
Could someone explain the differing rhythms at the very beginning of each Sinfonia for me? (Fray plays it more like Gould and Tureck while Anderszewksi plays it like Schiff and Levit.) I've heard it played both ways many times. Is it just different editions, or is something else going on?
Sorry for my bad English
Imho, Bach needs to be taken as would you perform a piece of Shakespeare. You has a minor setting, a description of the people (how old are they? ,...), dialogue ... Thats all. Nothing more.
Now, you have to decide everything else.
Thats why, there are diffrent interpretation out there. A wonderful thing for us
It's the convention of the period in french overture style to double dot, similar to swung eighth-notes in jazz music today, a stylistic convention that was assumed knowledge. In fact, the notation did not exist at the time to write the correct rhythm accurately, double dots were extremely rare, if they ever occur, and certainly double dotted rests would have been a foreign concept. Similarly in other works of the baroque period, including Bach, movements in 12/8 appear with triple eighth notes in the melody and dotted-eighth and sixteenth notes (as though in 4/4) in the left hand. According to modern notation, this is a polyrhythm, but in the style of the day the sixteenth notes were simply swung in with the triple notes as an implied stylistic convention, since modern triplet [bracket] notation had not been developed. Of course we know all of this thanks largely to scholarship throughout the mid and late 20th century, and older recordings such as Gould (and many modern piano performers, unfortunately) were not aware of much of what we know now about how they interpreted the page. For my money, Bach sounds best on harpsichord, as the voices are all equal, and the counterpoint comes through much more clearly. Scott Ross plays the Partitas wonderfully.
NATIONALISATION TOTAL!!!
@@liegon LA MERDE!!!
03:00
0:35
Glenn...another league.
listening to this again after a while made me wish Anderszewski recorded the Goldbergs, his bach is so yummy
The link between Beethoven and Bach right there.
It is true that the capriccio is annoucing Beethoven in its pace and octaves in bass part.
Beethoven loved this piece so much that the introduction of his pathetique sonata is a rendition to this piece.
@@matiquielma Also notice how the first 4 notes of the third movement (Pathétique) are exactly the same as those of the Andante and the Sarabande!
@@eingooglenutzer1474 yeah noticed that! The rendition is on a level only Beethoven could have done
Can anybody enlighten me why some pianists play a high c in bar 21 (first note) of the symphonia and others a b flat?
21:02 these embellishments remind me of Glenn Gould.
Mohamed Alnajjar Gould was the master of Bach's music. Just couldn't handle his (Gould) hum during recordings
Pat Cates I agree.
15:10
In your analysis you mention that the sarabande is a French court dance which it is not. The sarabande is from Latin America/Iberia.
19:37 Anderszewsky
In your commentary you said that the Saraband was of French origins, but if im not mistaken the Saraband is a Spanish dance of of Saracenic origin; hence the etymological connection between Saracenic and Saraband.
You're quite right: I should have said it was a French court dance, rather than that it originated as one. (From the 17th century onward it was mostly known as a slow French court dance, and iirc had mostly died out in Spain as a result of official Catholic disapproval.)
I am having problems with the tr on thA flat chord in the first section, any advice on fingering etc. thanks
I bet Beethoven's Pathethique sonata was inspired by this!
Actualy it was inspired by mozarts c minor sonata
@@Noah-wv4td cause beethoven was known for that mozart influence in many of his works
ahh I was so sure it was that lmao
Your house is a fine little house Jack.
I was learning this piece and found out that on bar 21 of Sinfonia, Fray plays the first note B-flat instead of the C(Glenn Gould does the same) but Anderszewski does plays C. I wonder why they did that and which one is correct?
Some times looks like a modern Glenn Gould
브라더 화이팅 좋고 좋다 어쩔시고 잘도 놀자 리듬에맞춰
The first note of the 21st measure (right hand) of the Sinfonia is different in the sheet music I have (B instead of C). Anyone know what the deal is with that?
I have been learning this piece, and I was also confused. However, I watched a masterclass on this piece from Andras Schiff on medici.tv, and he said that Bach wrote a C but a lot of people play B. Personally, I play the C.
@@feinburger5404 Interesting. Thank you
@@glmoffet18 No problem :)
Nicely-interpreted. My one issue is that I find the Allegro in the Sinfonia too fast. It's "Allegro," not "Presto."
Fast sounds better though
I prefer David Fray !