David Dalle
Thursday July 24th, 2014 with David Dalle
Chamber Music Festival: Bach and his influence with guest Pemi Paull

2014, besides marking the 20th year anniversary for my program, also marks the 20th year anniversary of the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. This year one of the festival's highlights is a series of concerts with the Montreal-based Ensemble Caprice. Ensemble Caprice will be presenting 5 concerts at this year's festival, all dedicated to the music of Bach. Four concerts featuring the complete chamber music of Bach, all 16 works for 2 or 3 musicians. The 5th concert, closing the festival, will feature all 6 Brandenburg Concertos in Ensemble Caprice's unique presentation with Shostakovich intertwined. Johann Sebastien Bach is easily the most influential composer in classical music in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dmitri Shostakovich was a judge for the inaugural International Bach piano competition held in Lepzig, 1950 (the bicentennial year of Bach's death). He was astonished by the gorgeous performance of Bach from Tatiana Nikolayeva, who won the gold medal. After returning home from the competition, he composed his own set of 24 Preludes and Fugues in all the keys, modelled after Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. These extraordinary pieces are worthy of standing next to the Bach, and were premiered by Tatiana Nikolayeva in 1952. Ensemble Caprice have taken 6 preludes and 1 fugue from Shostakovich's set and orchestrated them for Baroque period instruments to function as preludes and postlude to the 6 Brandenburg Concertos. This works really well and reinforces the links over 2 centuries between Bach and Shostakovich. Bach has inspired and influenced countless composers and individuals pieces, and has shown up in musical quotations countless times; we hear today Portuguese composer Alvaro Cassuto and his beautiful, driving orchestral work "Return to the Future", inspired by Bach's 6th Brandenburg Concerto which Cassuto conducted in 1985 (the tricentennial year of Bach's birth). It continues to show how Bach is very much alive, being learned and practised and played by millions of music students every day; being performed by countless professional and amateur musicians; and showing up in the composition of innumerable new compositions; and of course, being listened to by millions worldwide. I am joined today by guest Pemi Paull to discuss Bach and new music. He is a Canadian violist who has studied in Ottawa and Montreal and is a member of Ensemble Caprice and soloist in the 6th Brandenburg Concerto.