Inspired by Bach : Joanna MacGregor
"Intet nytt under solen", Bach er og har vært inspirasjonskilde for svært mange skapende mennesker - uavhengig av kunstform og sjanger. Albert Schweitzer mente alt fører til Bach, i forståelsen at Bach var et vendepunkt som alt pekte frem mot før, og alt i ettertid pekte tilbake til.
Joanna MacGregor is one of the world's most celebrated pianists and pedagogues, appearing as a concert pianist, curator and conductor
Strengths and quirks combine in a truly individual reading of the Goldbergs
MacGregor fills out Var 29's bass-lines in octaves; but unlike anyone else, she bleeds Var 30's final measures into the Aria da capo, gradually letting go of the sustain pedal as the music proceeds from a murky dream to relatively clear reality. How MacGregor's determinedly individual touches will hold up over repeated hearings is the big question. At least her formidable pianism is more than sufficient not to require aid from a DJ and a laptop in creating this veritable "Goldbergs Remix".
- Gramophone
Joanna MacGregor på Arena i Moss
Vi har programmert Bachs Goldbergvariasjoner på Arene eller i Moss kirke snart et titalls ganger, og det er et verk som er umulig å slippe tak i - men krever gjentatte og regelmessig lyttinger. Det finnes utallige versjoner med de største pianistene og cembalistene - og det finnes en rekke versjoner for andre instrumenter. Vi har hatt versjoner for stryketrio, akkordeon, orgel - og Bugge Wesseltoft og Det Norske kammerorkester har levert en lekende versjon i Moss kirke. En av de som har festet seg godt er Joanna MacGregors versjon på Arena i 2012. Det var et moderne og dristig "jazzy" grep - og jeg glemmer aldri at hun lot siste variasjonens sluttakkord (Quodlibet) hengende igjen inn i repetisjonen av Aria - som varsomt fra det fjerne vokste ut av denne klangen. Ganske frekt og virkningsfullt!
- Tor Sørby
Joanna MacGregor er en britisk pianist, komponist, dirigent og pedagog som har gjort seg bemerket langt utenfor de tradisjonelle rammene for klassisk musikk. Hun er kjent for sin allsidighet, nysgjerrighet og sitt uvanlige repertoarvalg – og ikke minst for hvordan hun bringer nye perspektiver til gamle verk, spesielt musikk av Johann Sebastian Bach.
Som lærer har MacGregor hatt stor innflytelse, blant annet som leder for pianoseksjonen ved Royal Academy of Music i London. Hun er kjent for å oppmuntre studenter til å utforske ulike stilarter og utvikle egne musikalske stemmer, heller enn å bare gjenskape "autentiske" tolkninger. Hun setter kreativitet og eksperimentering høyt, og dette smitter over på både undervisning og fremføring.
I rollen som produsent og kunstnerisk leder har hun jobbet med mange store festivaler, inkludert Bath International Music Festival, hvor hun kombinerte klassisk musikk med samtidsmusikk, jazz og verdensmusikk. Hun bygger broer mellom ulike sjangre og skaper rom for uventede musikalske møter.
Når det gjelder hennes forhold til Bach, og spesielt Goldbergvariasjonene, tar hun et moderne og ofte jazzy blikk på musikken. I stedet for å følge tradisjonell barokk stil, lar hun seg inspirere av improvisasjon og rytmiske friheter som man gjerne finner i jazz. Hennes tolkninger av Goldbergvariasjonene er preget av stor dynamikk og personlig uttrykk – noen ganger nesten som små, frie jazzfantasier innenfor rammen av Bachs komposisjon. Hun ser Bach ikke bare som en komponist fra fortiden, men som en levende kraft som tåler og inspirerer til nye musikalske former.
MacGregors arbeid viser hvordan klassisk musikk kan være både tidløs og nyskapende, og hvordan en kunstner med visjon og mot kan åpne ørene våre for gamle mesterverk på helt nye måter.
Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier I & II
Andrei Gavrilov | Joanna McGregor | Nikolai Demidenko, Angela Hewitt, piano
I anledning Bach-jubileet i år 2000 – som markerte 250-årsdagen for Bachs død – ble det satt i gang en rekke store prosjekter over hele verden for å hedre komponistens arv. Ett av de mest bemerkelsesverdige var en innspilling av Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (Bachs veltempererte klaver) der fire svært ulike pianister ble invitert til å spille hver sin del av verket. Joanna MacGregor var én av dem, og hun satte sitt unike preg på prosjektet.
De andre pianistene i prosjektet var Angela Hewitt, Andrei Gavrilov og Nikolai Demidenko – et bevisst sammensatt og eklektisk ensemble som representerte forskjellige tolkningstradisjoner, fra det dypt klassiske til det eksperimentelle og jazzinspirerte. MacGregor spilte Bok II av Wohltemperierte Klavier, og hennes tilnærming var, som alltid, preget av utforsking og personlighet.
Bach's Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations demand a disciplined technique, but one that is mercurial and flexible; players are forced to acquire a quick brain to dodge between different dance styles, with their filigree, cunning counterpoint. … I had the score of the Goldberg Variations on my piano for twenty years before I dared open it.
- Joanna MacGregor
"I had the score of the Goldberg Variations on my piano for twenty years before I dared open it. I'd always played a lot of Bach, ever since I was a little girl; but somehow the reputation of this piece intimidated me, so I got on with playing his other works – The Well-Tempered Clavier, Partitas, French Suites and the keyboard concertos, even the Art of Fugue (which is very daunting).
Finally, I opened the first page, to the Aria. G major is very kind, benevolent key, and the opening is intimate and confiding; the early variations are sunny, warm, humorous. Rather a like a cliffhanging plot, each variation contains the seeds of the next one, until you're drawn into the deepest part of a labyrinth; the music grows complex, and turns dark. But holding tightly onto the thread, we're out again, back to domestic life around the table, singing the Aria once more. The music is the same, but we have changed.
So the surprise is, then, that the Goldbergs manage to be both dreamlike and reflective – a nod to the fable they were written to cure a case of aristocratic insomnia – as well as earthy, discursive and playful. Boogie-woogie players talk about having 'a left hand like God', and surely Bach's descending bass lines – the springboard for every variation, as well as contributing a witty commentary – deserve a whole study of their own. It also strikes me as an extraordinarily contemporary piece, by which I mean Bach imitates all his contemporaries (Scarlatti, Rameau, Corelli and Handel) by doing brilliant impersonations of them, turning out versions that seem to be competitively 'better;' and all to a self-imposed scheme, a set of rising canons every three variations. There's an unstoppable life force in the music encompassing solitude and despair, as well as radiant joy.
The Goldbergs demand a disciplined technique, but one that needs to be mercurial and flexible; players are forced to acquire a quick brain to dodge between different dance styles, with their filigree, cunning counterpoint. It was first published in the four-volume set Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) in 1741, and I like Bach's comment that the music has been composed 'for the soul's delight of music-lovers'. It's music to instruct and stretch the technique, music to invite reflection, and to apply to everyday life. We tend to assume that pieces are always written with public performances in mind, but even the Goldberg Variations – glitteringly bravura as they are – can be intensely private.
I'm not sure if Bach single-handedly invented this idea, but the Goldberg Variations is the godfather to the massive keyboard cycle, where a single player sets out on a long, transformative journey. Without it, it's hard to imagine Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus, even Cage's Sonatas and Interludes. The dramatic pacing is masterly. The first ten are short, dance-like; Bach is carefully revealing his hand. The next ten begin to open up, no.13 an expressive turning point. Canons start employing inversions, and the minor tonality is introduced. Variations start to be longer, and feel darker, more nuanced. No.22, a still meditation on the bass line, guides us onto another level, in preparation for the abyss of no.25. From then on the variations go like the wind. And you know the ending."
Joanna MacGregors egne notater til satsene:
Aria
Variation 1 Witty two-part invention
Variation 2 Two flamingos curling round each other, right hand; left hand occasionally joins in
Variation 3 First rung of the ladder: canon in unison (canons always happen in the upper two voices, bass line supports and comments)
Variation 4 Muscular three-note figure x 35
Variation 5 Dangerous hand-diving over semiquavers. First of many toccatas where hapless performer plays with arms crossed
Variation 6 Mellow canon at the second
Variation 7 Delicious siciliano
Variation 8 Treacherous study. Rhythm in L.H. will be back in no. 20
Variation 9 Tender canon at the third
Variation 10 Four-part fughetta; earthy and humorous, like the final Quodlibet
Variation 11 (I was renting an apartment in Sydney, trying to learn the Goldbergs. Every morning on my way to the studio I would pass a shop selling Betty Boop T-shirts. This became the 'Betty Boop' variation.)
Variation 12 Canon at the 4th, but the second voice is inverted
Variation 13 Unusually, a lot of slurs and staccato markings from Bach. A movement of real depth and beauty
Variation 14 Rameau let loose
Variation 15 Canon at the 5th; first movement (of three) in G minor. Inverted second voice again (the end reminds me of a Ligeti étude which creeps off the top of the keyboard)
Variation 16 French overture – much ornamentation – and courtly dance
Variation 17 Laughing gas
Variation 18 Canon at the 6th. Shadow-play
Variation 19 Dreamy in 3/8
Variation 20 Machine-gun fire
Variation 21 Canon at the 7th. Chromatic, weary G minor
Variation 22 A Tallis motet; gateway to another world (Art of Fugue?)
Variation 23 Scarlatti, with outbursts of 3rds and 6ths
Variation 24 Canon at the octave. Corelli's Christmas Concerto
Variation 25 The great Pietà in G minor. Without this, there could be no Chopin, no Beethoven's Diabelli variation no.31, no Pamina's aria
Variation 26 A mighty ruach
Variation 27 Canon at the 9th
Variation 28 This would make the harpsichord rattle and hum (and hear the end of Beethoven's Op 109, 111?)
Variation 29 Shaking chords and free-styling
Variation 30 Quodlibet. Two folksongs, favourites in the Bach household:
'I've not been with you for so long
Come closer, closer, closer'
and
'Cabbage and Beets drove me away
Had my mother cooked some meat then I'd have stayed much longer'
Many other ribbons of folksong collide into a six-voice stretto, bridging to…
Aria …Alpha Omega
