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Inspiration
is a wonderful thing, almost one of the most wonderful things that
can happen to an artist. The feeling that something new, something
exciting is to going to be born out of your heart and soul. More
than anyone else, Johann Sebastian Bach
has inspired musicians with his music - and such beautiful music
that demands not just technical perfection on the performer's part,
but a great deal of artistry, feeling and imagination. Imagination
... that is what Yo-Yo Ma has contributed to these remarkable pieces
for the unaccompanied Cello. Glenn Gould, yet another great Bach
performer, once remarked that the only reason why anyone should
make a new recording is that he has something new to say about and
with this music. Having been learning these suites since he was
4 years old (he professes that he is still learning them!), Ma does
indeed have something new to say. And such a wonderful way he says
it.
There is much to this project than just a performance of these Suites
themselves. What Yo-Yo Ma has sought to do is to inspire artists
from other fields: Garden Design, Architecture, Dance, Film-Making,
Ice-Skating and Japanese Kabuki to explore these Suites with
him. Think about it: a collaborative exploration between musician
and dancer. The dancer dancing to the music the musician is playing
while at the same time, the musician watches the dancer who in turns
affects the way the musician plays. All this is captured on film
and sound, and as the listener listens to the music, he sees these
images that the dancer conjures, adding to those images and emotions
that he himself is already creating within upon hearing this piece
of music. A Total Work of Art, an interactive piece of art indeed
that works on some many levels it makes one dizzy just thinking
about it.
What
Yo-Yo Ma has succeeded in doing is to explore the Suites from outside
in. This can be contrasted to Rostropovich's exploration which starts
from inside the music and inside himself, prompting him to find
single words or phrases to characterise each suite. The result of
70 years of life experience and study of the music, culminating
in a single definitive performance (EMI CDS5 55363-2). Now let us
see what Yo-Yo Ma has to offer. A whole new perspective, and a whole
new world of expression surely unprecedented in any other recording
of these Cello suites.
While
purists all over will first of all question the credibility of Ma's
interpretation which discards baroque convention - or as David Nelson
of Fanfare Magazine would "wonder how much gardeners and ice-skaters
have to tell a great cellist, even a bad cellist, how to play Bach"
- I ask skeptics to for once drop their biases and see what this
project has achieved. Through, sight and sound, Yo-Yo Ma and his
team has given new relevance to this music as we enter the 21st
century. Ma himself has unlocked the depths of passion in these
notes, notes that follow one another so perfectly that there seems
no other combination which would be right.
With such glorious music, the greatest challenge for the performer
is perhaps in the phrasing. Yo-Yo Ma has certainly come far from
his previous recording of the Suites by saying much more with greater
economy of phrases, a far more relaxed tempi in general and a richer,
darker tone. The Prelude from Suite No.1 exudes such qualities.
While it is described by the Garden Designer Julie Moir Messervy
as "an undulating riverscape", the music itself actually expresses
much more than that. Ma places each 'climax' carefully with a good
amount of build-up, and gives each repetitive phrase meaning in
its place. Like the first Prelude of The Well-Tempered
Klavier, the simplicity of this music only makes it more demanding
for the performer, but Yo-Yo Ma scores right on track one.
In
contrast, the Preludes on Suites Nos. 2 and 5 seem more stylised,
less involved perhaps as a result of the involvement of Modern Dance
and Kabuki. With his sometimes exaggerated rubato, I think
the "dance" character of each of the later movements is somewhat
compromised, except usually for the Sarabandes and the final
Gigues with the exception of Suite No. 6. The exuberance
of these movements are even more greatly emphasised when you watch
the performance of Champion Ice-Skaters Jayne Torvill & Christopher
Dean on film. The combination is truly dazzling!
Now,
that I've said it, I think watching the films is not crucial to
the appreciation of the performances of the Suites, but you don't
know what you're missing if you don't. I found The Sound of the
Carceri particularly awesome (though its impact on the music
was less apparent to me because Bach's music constructs the most
splenderous architectural wonders in my mind already) to just witness
the amazing effort going on - the reconstruction of Giovanni Battista
Piranesi's architectural fantasies via computer-generated graphics.
I
think one of the main failings of this set is that because each
movement and each Suite is so well-conceptualised, and each containing
so many ideas already, it's hard to imagine that as a set, these
six Suites make any collective musical impact. In contrast
is Pablo Casals' early contribution to this music. I remember on
first hearing of the complete Suites by Casals, there was a sense
of organic unity (maybe because of the style) through the set (EMI
CHS5 66215-2) - the performer grew with the music, as each suite
got more difficult. While I enjoy Yo-Yo Ma's flawless technique
on the instrument, I cease to perceive the Suites as music celebrating
the cello more than for the ideas behind them. The instrument became
the artist's voice as the music took on more than it was intended.
Not altogether a bad thing, but if someone took the WTK, or the
Partitas for Violin and read World Peace into them, we simply won't
see them in the same light again.
It's wonderful how a great piece of music perpetuates. I can't imagine
how many more people will be "Inspired by Bach" upon experiencing
this recording. One thing is for sure, Bach will always be the one
composer who towers above all, inspiring those from the likes of
Mozart to the man in the street who programs a few bars of Bach
into his handphone. So will this man, Yo-Yo Ma. His generosity of
spirit, fabulous musicianship and virtuosity will produce many more
great recordings and performances that will leave his name up there
with the likes of Rostropovich and Casals.
Recently,
I had the opportunity of shaking Mr Ma's hand and telling him how
inspiring these discs were. He immediately looked up at me and smiled
broadly, and said "Thank you, Thank you very much" with the kind
of humbling sincere gratitude that is the mark of a great artist.
I suppose that such inspiration on the Cello can only come to such
a man, as the music came to Bach.
ADRIAN TAN wonders what happened
to all those Proyos...
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11.4.1999 © Adrian Tan
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