never enough
I could listen to him play Bach all day, all week, all month.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, excerpt (Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major); Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997, piano), live, Austria (Innsbruck), 1974
(This recording—all four-plus glorious hours—is available on Spotify: search “Richter, Bach, Innsbruck.”)
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lagniappe
other morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), French Suites (Nos. 1-6); András Schiff (piano), live, Germany (Leipzig), 2010
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lagniappe
radio
The annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University) continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 10/24/19
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lagniappe
radio
One of my favorite musical events begins today: the annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University); all Bach, all the time, until midnight New Year’s Eve.
*****
random sights
other day, Chicago (Monadnock Building)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 12/5/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 3 in E major; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 11/28/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Listen,
how your heart beats inside me.—Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012, MCOTD Hall of Fame), from “Could Have,” translated from Polish by Stanislav Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 10/31/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
along the mountain road
somehow it tugs at my heart—
a wild violet—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Makoto Ueda
lucid, adj. clear, transparent, luminous. E.g., Víkingur Ólafsson playing Bach.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Aria variata (alla maniera italiana) in A minor; Víkingur Ólafsson (piano), live, Berlin, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
[B]y the latest count, there are 70 million persons displaced from their homes worldwide.
—J. M. Coetzee, “Australia’s Shame” (review of No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani), New York Review of Books, 9/26/19
He played as if his life depended on it.
Glenn Gould (1932-1982, piano), playing Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor (The Art of Piano, 1999)
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lagniappe
reading table
Happiness has never been one of my great aspirations.
—poet W.S. Graham (1918-1986, quoted in London Review of Books, 7/18/19)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita for keyboard No. 6, excerpt (Toccata); Glenn Gould (1932-1982, piano), live (studio)
more
Tonight he’ll be playing this piece, along with Bach’s five other cello suites, in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Cello Suite No. 1 in G major; Yo-Yo Ma, live, London, 2015
