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SUMMARY:Brahms’s Concert Arrangements of Cantatas by J S Bach: Research 
 Report and Performance - Prof. Robert Pascall
DTSTART:20150131T170000Z
DTEND:20150131T183000Z
UID:TALK57796@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39522
DESCRIPTION:Brahms’s leading role in the Bach revival in Vienna and else
 where is relatively well-known in outline. This evening’s report by Robe
 rt Pascall offers the findings of recent archival research which materiall
 y amplify this knowledge. The report will be followed by performances of t
 wo arias with Brahms’s newly-discovered continuo realizations for string
  ensemble\, given by the Faculty of Music Bach Ensemble under Martin Ennis
 .\n\nIn October 1874\, Brahms wrote to his friend Philipp Spitta about his
  recent performances of Bach’s Cantatas Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 4 
 and Nun ist das Heil  BWV 50: “in concert-life for me the most striking 
 and the most pleasing of adventures.” He had begun performing Bach canta
 tas with the first mixed-voice choir he directed on a regular basis\, the 
 Singverein at the Detmold court (1857-60) and he continued when he got to 
 Vienna\, with the Singakademie 1863-4\, and the Singverein of the Gesellsc
 haft der Musikfreunde 1872-5.\n\nFor these performances he prepared arrang
 ements which met the practical requirements of his time. Broadly speaking\
 , he added instruments to support and colour Bach’s vocal parts where he
  thought necessary\; he replaced or adapted Bach’s high trumpet parts\, 
 which were no longer fully playable by late 19th-century musicians\; he wr
 ote continuo realizations\; and he added performance nuancing in accordanc
 e with contemporary taste. He intended these cantata-arrangements for one\
 , at the most two specific performances\, with no idea of publication what
 soever\, and the source survival is correspondingly complex. Brahms’s wo
 rking habits as he evolved the arrangements will be surveyed\, and issues 
 arising for the forthcoming edition of them in the new Johannes Brahms Ges
 amtausgabe discussed.\n\nIn the main Brahms prepared his continuo realizat
 ions for organ\, but two movements survive in which he replaced the keyboa
 rd continuo with a string ensemble\, and it is these two pieces that will 
 be performed tonight. In them he deployed his full compositional powers\, 
 particularly as developed in his latest chamber music\, thus fashioning hi
 s own creative tribute to his revered forbear. \n\nRobert Pascall studied 
 at Oxford under John Caldwell and Sir Jack Westrup\, and served as Profess
 or and Head of Music at the Universities of Nottingham and Bangor. He has 
 written on music from Bach to Schoenberg\, with particular focus on the mu
 sic of Brahms. He is Vice-Chair of the New Johannes Brahms Complete Editio
 n\, for which he has edited the symphonies\, including Brahms’s own arra
 ngements of them for piano duet. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Mus
 ical Association and Honorary Professor of Music Philology in the Universi
 ty of Cambridge.\n
LOCATION:Concert Hall\, Faculty of Music
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