Mexico City. Johann Sebastian Bach’s music was a relief for the feelings of loneliness and isolation of the composer Gabriel Prokofiev, who suffered a creative block that prevented him from composing at the beginning of the pandemic.
The British musician offered a peculiar concert for Internet users – surrounded by synthesizers and electric keyboards – with all the pieces of the baroque genius who was born in 1685. He too diyéi he paused to tell “a little story of confinement.” Last March he was working on a concert for viola, an important work commissioned by various orchestras. “Normal life stopped. There was no outside stimulation or interaction. Inspiration didn’t flow like it usually did. “
At that time, a friend told him that the violist Hiyoli Togawa was making an album conceived for the moment of confinement with pieces that combined six zarabandas of the suites of Bach, as a reflection of the strong emotions of living a pandemic, a collaboration that might help as therapy for the blockage.
“It worked!”, And showed the album Songs of Solitude to be released on March 5. The cover, with the interpreter protected with a mask; inside, the image of the freed face. From Berlin, Togawa and her viola teamed up on screen to perform the Zarabanda in D minor; Prokofiev responded simultaneously with electronic improvisation, granular sounds and reverberations.
The 46-year-old Briton offered the concert that remains on the web as part of the Festival Everything about Bach! (All About Bach), organized by Only Stage, a company that represents conductors, composers, ensembles, opera singers and soloists. “Bach’s music is what we need now more than ever,” he announced with the launch of the digital season.
“We want to go on this adventure with Bach, who started music as we know it. Thanks to their language we will be able to rediscover our origins looking to the future with full awareness of the past ”, they stated in a statement that responds to the transformation that the music business underwent due to the pandemic.
Only Stage launched the series of chamber music concerts where artists can offer presentations thanks to the use of technology and social networks, as fundamental tools to spread music around the world.
Approach to Johann Sebastian Bach
Between January 8 and March 5, the transmission of nine concerts was scheduled through YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Prokofiev’s was the sixth participation, which can be reproduced at the link: https://youtu.be/uLegiMTncRU
Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the Russian composer and pianist, made a peculiar tour of some of Bach’s pieces, surrounded by synthesizers, computers and electronic accessories, with explanations in English between each piece of Baroque origin, transformed by experimentation with distortions, sounds of storms and games with scores that are read upside down. The result: a soundtrack worthy of a movie by The Saint or to get into an eight-bit video game.
“My approach to Bach is a bit different, with electronic sounds that do justice to his beautiful and poetic music,” he explained in a T-shirt of the star pulsar popularized by the postpunk band Joy Division on the cover of Unknown Pleasures. The musician and founder of the Nonclassical record label has challenged traditional classical songwriting, even with hip-hop and grime beats. “Tonight is all about Johann. A musical offering for Bach ”.
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