Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How are you spending Easter Monday?

How about in the company of that most pious of great composers, JSB?

I thought I'd prepare for the 'Bach Marathon Live' (sic) this afternoon - a live broadcast via BBC Radio 3 from the Royal Albert Hall - by playing several of the variations of the Goldberg (i.e. all the ones which I've learnt, which is roughly a third) this morning, to get myself into the Bachian frame of mind. To make sure my musical mind was unsullied by anyone else, I didn't play any other composer, not even my beloved Rachmaninov and Chopin.....

Then John Eliot Gardiner took over proceedings, talking about and introducing a motet (Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225), then Alban Gerhardt introduced and played the Cello Suite No.6; then the highlight, of course, the Goldberg Variations BWV 988, played on a Steinway D by Joanna MacGregor. When she arrived at the reprise of the Aria at the end, she kept the pedal down, the Aria re-emerging ppp (some 65 minutes later) after the bluster of the Quodlibet, as if slowly surfacing from the depths, in the pedal wash. (Glenn Gould would have a fit at this..... ). An imaginative idea, and why not? I've not heard any other pianist doing this (though I've heard MacGregor do the same in a previous performance from the Wigmore Hall a few years ago, but I think it works better in the vast spaces of the RAH).

Then the Cantata for Easter Day: Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, where JEG coached the audience beforehand so that they could join in the chorales. Just the way it would have been done in Bach's day. The audience sang lustily too....

Next, Viktoria Mullova played the solo violin Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV1004, a HIP with no lingering at all in the great Chaconne, which she ended quietly.

Then some lovely organ music, including the 'St Anne' Prelude & Fugue, with John Butt getting the most out of the RAH's mighty organ (which everyone associates with Land of Hope and Glory from its use at the Last Night of the Proms every summer).

In between, there were discussions about Bach and his music, as well as JEG introducing historic recordings by Pablo Casals and Thurston Dart (on clavichord) and Benjamin Britten. Quite a contrast between Casals's romanticism and today's HIP....

At present, the great B minor Mass is under way......and I'm in Bach heaven .

Forgot to add - you can hear what I'm hearing via www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 right now.

I am not religious, but I had the need to play Bach both on Sunday and Monday. It was like an inner voice telling me to play Bach.

In class finding the bending moment diagram for a prestressed concrete bridge...hahaa.

Tuesday already here, but I spent yesterday recovering from a rather stressful concert on Sunday (one of those ones where you think the choir is going to fall apart but they somehow pull it together) - did a little practice, went out for a walk and a coffee, had one student come for a lesson. Gorgeous autumn weather here - mild and sunny.
(and yes, bennevis, the choir sang Bach)

A short motet - or the mighty Matthäus-Passion?

Filed away my music from yesterday. Made a note to self for next Easter about the little organ I am asked to play ev. Easter at an outdoor service. Ya hafta push the reset button on the elec. outlet and I never remember it.

The choir sang pretty well and I made it thru those triads.

Christ lag in Todes Banden, actually.

Your mention of the audience singing the chorales reminds me of when I used to go to a terrific performance of the St Matthew passion in Sydney on Good Friday and the audience brought scores and sang all the chorales. It was great!

What a pity audience participation in such singing is a dying art.

Some years ago, I had a memorable experience where I attended a concert as part of a singing festival at London's South Bank. As the audience walked in, ushers handed everyone a brand new score. We discovered we were expected to be active participants in a new choral piece by Bob Chilcott, and Sir David Willcocks (no less) would be teaching us the piece for an hour prior to the performance later that day, which the BBC would be recording for broadcast.

Just the experience of learning from a great choral conductor, and the way he effortlessly marshalled the huge and disparate forces (not all of whom could read music) was amazing.

Lisztening.

What, its Easter? Ah that's why there's so much chocolate in our cupboard

After playing Holy Week and 3 services on Sunday, I did as little as possible on Monday. Finally, this evening, I sat down and finally practiced some for up coming performances.

It was just a normal monday here - played for a bunch of singers in the morning, then played in piano duos class, went for lunch with a friend, got into a huge fight with my teacher, and practiced (somewhat). Had coffee with another friend, and practiced some more (badly, because I was still fuming).

The most memorable part of my Easter Monday was going out to buy some milk, having a cold wind whip up out of nowhere hurling these tiny snowflakes that were so dense that they seemed like flying fog, then coming home and staring out the window at a clear blue sky. Other than that - work.

I watched the Secret movie, the one about the Taiwanese piano students. Very interesting and creative movie which is let down a little by a dull male lead, who was much more interesting at the piano (and behind the camera, as he directed the movie) than when he was trying to act.

I wonder if anyone here has ever seen the German series Heimat, about some families going through the period before and after the Second World War (between 1919 and 2000), and onwards through generations. It's mostly in black and white, and the acting is very naturalistic, nothing is faked (including the occasional nudity: it's German, after all ) - I still remember a scene where one young guy, who had been lounging amongst his artistic peers, got up, went to the grand piano and played Ravel's Ondine remarkably well (as one does...) while the others continued chatting while listening......(one imagines it being almost like a Schubertiade in Schubert's time).

Would any English-speaking country have incorporated classical music and the piano so naturally into the fabric of a long TV series, without it being the point of the story?

Cybill did, but that's mainly because Alicia Witt is a terrific pianist.

You mean the last day of Passover (this year, anyway)? Work is prohibited! I resumed my daily practicing on Tuesday evening.

Being an atheist, the significance of religious days - whatever the religion - pass over me .

I just enjoy the music, which is why I love Easter and Christmas. Including the Russian Orthodox Christmas. I'm just glad that so many composers were inspired to write so much wonderful music because of their faith, without which the world of music would be so much poorer....

I spent Monday frantically learning the piano part for the Brahms FAE Scherzo to accompany a friend. It's really fun! Learning frantically is less fun, but the performance was worth it.