Bach on a bandoneon

[Daniel Hersh]

From a couple of years ago, but I don''t recall seeing it mentioned here:

 

 

[David Barnert]

She’s got a lot to learn about playing Bach. It’s more than just notes. She plays all the right notes, but it’s still a mess. For instance, she plays the very first note short, which is a reasonable choice. Playing it long would also have been a reasonable choice. But there’s got to be consistency. The figure returns frequently in the piece and sometimes she plays it long and sometimes she plays it short, often one right after the other on each hand. There are plenty of other examples that wouldn’t be as easy to point out.

 

I hear a lot of notes. I don’t hear any music.

[ritonmousquetaire]

You're a bit harsh David... Though I agree with you on her interpretation, I at least appreciate to hear somebody trying to tackle a difficult repertoire on her instrument - at least she shows that it can be played; I wish we'd see these kind of attempts by concertina players a little bit more.

 

That being said, she probably suffered from the fact that there aren't many bandoneon players trying to tackle Bach's pieces, which means that she hadn't any classicaly trained teacher that could have helped her with her interpretation. Maybe organists could help here...

 

She's not the only one to play Bach on the bandoneon though, Rodolfo Daluisio comes to mind. David, what's your opinion on his interpretation here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7JraKSggo

 

He also plays one my favorite pieces, Rameau's Le Rappel des Oiseaux : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvhtVbzrLws When I got my 20b anglo, it was one of the first pieces I tried to arrange. I did play its first part - though in a heavily butchered version of course. Maybe one day I'll get the ideal concertina, a not too big instrument that'll allow me to play such pieces...

 

Chemnitzer players on the other hand don't seem to be really interested in playing such music on their instruments - I'd be curious to hear them try though.

Edited September 3, 2018 by ritonmousquetaire
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[David Barnert]

5 hours ago, ritonmousquetaire said:

You're a bit harsh David...

 

I was trying to be as gentle as possible, restricting my criticisms to demonstrable truths. For years I’ve been resisting the temptation to say something like this about the playing of some people on this forum, but the culture around here discourages that sort of thing, so I’ve kept it to myself. But in this case the performer is someone we don’t know, so I figured “fair game.” I hope there are members of this forum who will appreciate (and be inspired by) the revelation that playing music is more than playing notes.

 

5 hours ago, ritonmousquetaire said:

That being said, she probably suffered from the fact that there aren't many bandoneon players trying to tackle Bach's pieces, which means that she hadn't any classicaly trained teacher that could have helped her with her interpretation. Maybe organists could help here...

 

The basic tenets of music performance don’t only apply to Bach or classical music. I would think a well-trained bandoneon player, even if they’ve never met an organist or heard a Bach fugue, develops habits that any listener would recognize as “well played.”

[David Barnert]

6 hours ago, ritonmousquetaire said:

She's not the only one to play Bach on the bandoneon though, Rodolfo Daluisio comes to mind. David, what's your opinion on his interpretation here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7JraKSggo

 

He also plays one my favorite pieces, Rameau's Le Rappel des Oiseaux : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvhtVbzrLws

 

Yeah, this guy knows what he’s doing.

[David Barnert]

And if there was any question he knows his way around Bach...

 

1 15 Bach Prel Fuga sol Daluisio Alberdi97 Bandoneon

[saguaro_squeezer]

I do wish that he'd done the Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C, BVW564.

[Ransom]

She plays the bandoneon better than I ever plan to, so cheers there. ?

 

I suspect that her musicianship is adequate to many purposes, but I agree that this is not a flattering style for Bach.

 

I think that's some of the reason I can't stand Glenn Gould's take on the Goldberg Variations that everyone raves about.

[David Barnert]

On 9/3/2018 at 1:09 PM, David Barnert said:

And if there was any question he knows his way around Bach...

 

1 15 Bach Prel Fuga sol Daluisio Alberdi97 Bandoneon

 

Here’s another fine example, featured in the current edition of Concertina World (publication of the International Concertina Association). Claudio Constantini plays Bach Toccata and Fugue BWV 565 in D minor:

 

 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Sounded great to me🌝 Both versions🌝🌝