A tip for Good Friday. Viola player Saskia Meijs first made the necessary mileage in the 'classical' classical music world. She decided to leave it and look for a less formal and convention-laden career. Solo and with her group the Barockpuppies, she now undertakes the nicest things, at beautiful locations, such as Frankendael and the Concert pumping station. Blessed with a deep knowledge of classical music, she now takes on Bach's Bach with theatre-maker Henk Zwart (known from Suver Nuver, among others). Matthëus Passion (1727) in hand.
Kitchen table
As it goes with good ideaën originated this plan at home at the kitchen table. Video artist Martijn Grootendorst heard his friend practising the viola part and already thought it sounded so beautiful that the idea arose to make a mini version of the most famous passion. Bassist Marko Bonarius got involved and Zwart dove into the books to tell good, useful and sometimes funny stories surrounding this work and its maker.
Inter mezzo: Bach in .wav
I don't particularly believe in saint worship, but there is something special about Bach's music[ref] Musicologists among the readers of this site are now choking at the enormity of the preceding formulation[/ref]. On one of my first computers, as a music sample, there was a fragment of a Brandenburg concerto in .wav format. This was to demonstrate the media player included in the software. All notes were played at the same volume and the tempo was maintained with mathematical precision - rubato cannot yet be captured in an algorithm. In short: any form of human expression was missing, yet this piece of Bach (the first Allegro from the third concerto) moved me so much that I had it on often. Let me just say: Bach's music can hardly be broken.[ref]Once again, the believer in Bach is choking here, but wait a little longer with that letter sent in until after seeing the tipped performance.[/ref]
A piece of experience to the people
Now the beauty of The Matthëus according to Henk That the makers do not pursue deconstruction. Rather, this gem of a performance (I saw it last week at the new Amsterdam sociëteit Sexyland) can be characterised as a deliberately kept small demonstration of Bach's uniqueness, ingenuity and emotional persuasiveness. The Erbarme dich here too, performed only by Meijs and Bonarius, is truly wonderful. The inevitable emotional centre of gravity. So if you are completely fed up with the vain Famous Dutch in the Naarden church and want to experience Bach's passion (and these performers!) all over again, we recommend that you visit the Amsterdam Roode Cinema to visit.
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