On the same night as the Cello Suites concert, I instead went to the Leipzig Zoo for Concert No. 26 “Reflections” with the Tim Kliphuis Trio and Shunske Sato, the former concertmaster and artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society. I have been in love with Sato’s playing ever since I began listening to historically informed performances of Bach, so I couldn’t miss this opportunity to witness him play in person, even if the Cello Suites concert did present as a very tempting alternative.
Nevertheless, after a brief tour of the Zoo and dinner, the concert was a very big change from the music I had been hearing for the past week. I don’t really know what I was expecting, buying a ticket to an open-air concert in the Zoo featuring modern arrangements of Bach, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. The concert began with a jazz arrangement of the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto, with supposed inspirations taken from all the other Brandenburg Concertos as well (though I was not able to hear any). It did make me realize, however, how unfamiliar I am with each concerto and how much I rely on hearing the instrumentation to identify which one I am listening to. I also found it interesting that, despite playing on an instrument from the 1800s (I overheard Sato talking about his instrument with a colleague I suspect is from the Netherlands Bach Society) and using a modern bow, his technique remains very baroque. His bow hold and the way he supports his instrument all stayed consistent with how he played on early instruments, and it also sounded in his playing, even in a jazz context.
Overall, I found the concert to be a very well-constructed take on Bach and other composers in a “Transformed” way, including an arrangement of Pachelbel’s canon, Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”, and, unsuspectingly, Copland’s Rodeo Hoedown that I found very cheesy but also well-made. My favorite part of the concert was, without question, the encore, where Sato played a selection of Bach solo violin repertoire, and the Kliphuis Trio played an arrangement of Strauss’s “Morgen.”