more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor; Steuart Pincombe (cello), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2018
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival, which began the day before Christmas, concludes at midnight.
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin; Bella Hristova (violin)
first four movements, live (studio), Boston, 2012
fifth movement (Chaconne), live, Philadelphia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival (until midnight New Year’s Eve)
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musical thoughts
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.
—Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), on Bach’s Chaconne, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II; András Schiff (piano), live, London, 2018
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
***
musical thoughts
If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is God. Without Bach, God would be a third-rate character.
—Emil Cioran (1911-1995)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Six Cello Suites (excerpts); Yo-Yo Ma, live, Washington, D.C., 8/17/18
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lagniappe
random sights
other evening, Chicago (riding the Green Line)
alone
Brad Mehldau (piano), “Three Pieces After Bach,” live, Paris, 2018
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin in D minor, excerpt (Sarabande); Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), live, Vienna, c. 2008
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
violin festival
day three
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Chaconne (Partita No. 2 in D Minor); Ivry Gitlis (violin), live, Tokyo, 1990
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lagniappe
reading table
Try to Praise the Mutilated World
by Adam Zagajewski (1945-)
(translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh)Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
Bach festival
day three
Goldberg Variations, Aria; Peter Serkin, live, Japan (Hiroshima), 2017
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lagniappe
random thoughts: prayer (3 a.m.)
Thank you, unknowable other, for this most miraculous moment.
Bach festival
day two
Suite No. 1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello; Mischa Maisky, cello
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day 