Before taking this course, I was not super familiar with the music of J.S. Bach, and in fact the only piece of his I had ever played was a portion of his third cello suite arranged for viola. As a result I did have some idea of what to expect going in, but seeing these pieces performed live has completely changed my perspective on them.
On Tuesday, June 17th, we went to the Thomaskirche to see the suites performed by Jean-Guihen Queyras, who I thought overall did an excellent job. One of the first things that struck me about the performance was something we had discussed in class, which was how the suites are all collections of dance movements. Though, as we talked about, they would be near impossible to actually dance to, it was very clear how their composition and performance were informed by these different dances. The complexity and liberties taken with tempo throughout the suites make it clear that they are meant as performance pieces and would not likely be danced to. This is particularly evident in the later suites which are more technically challenging and would be extremely difficult for a dancer to follow. However, the way Queyras performed the suites still seemed to keep in mind the spirit of the dances. I especially noticed this in the Allemande from the third suite in C major, as the lightness with which Queyras played this movement definitely allowed the listener to feel a pulse reminiscent of dancing. I also noticed this in the Minuets from the first two suites, his light and clean playing combined with a slight emphasis on beat one created a feeling of lifting up which is characteristic of minuets and makes the dance elements very clear.
On further reflection, I tried to imagine what a different interpretation of the suites would sound like without this characteristic lightness and a more “virtuosic” and heavy tone, and I do not think it would work as well. Not only was Queyras’ performance leaning into the dance elements of the suites, but the way they were composed seems to make this approach necessary. Trying to take too many liberties and make the pieces fit a style where the soloist is clearly the main focus would only make them sound unnatural, and instead a balance must be struck between interpreting them originally while not straying too far from the uniform and light nature of dance pieces. I think Queyras overall did a great job of finding this balance, especially in the first three suites.
Another interesting aspect of this performance is the repeats which occur in almost every movement of every suite. These again contribute to portraying the pieces’ origins in dance, as the repeats make them more uniform and, well, repetitive, which would be important for people to latch onto and dane to a piece. In Queyras’ performance he did not take all of the repeats, which is understandable as this would have made the performance longer than is practical for the audience or for Queyras himself. It also does not take much away from the performance, as he took enough of the repeats to still convey the sense of dance. However, I do feel that some of his choices of which repeats to take were rather random and there were times where he took repeats which I did not expect him to take and vice versa. I feel like a more consistent approach to which repeats to take would have made the performance a little more cohesive and natural, but this is not a huge issue and I still enjoyed the performance quite a bit.
