On the program:
Trio Sonata in G, BWV 1038 - Emmanuel Pahud, flute; Berlin Baroque Soloists
Prelude in E-flat, BWV 552/1 - Balint Karosi, organ
settings of Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot by Schein, Praetorius, and Bach - Canto Armonico; Balint Karosi, organ
settings of Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir by Schein and Bach - Canto Armonico; Balint Karosi, organ
Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552/2 - Balint Karosi, organ
TRANSCRIPT:
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Balint Karosi Bach was already in his forties when he started to think about putting more of his works out in public. This was also another source of income for him.
Brian McCreath Organist Balint Karosi has lived with and performed Bach’s music for his entire life. And when it comes to this music, Bach’s motivation of earning a bit of extra money is only where the story begins. The Third Part of Bach’s Clavierübung – or, “Keyboard practice” – brings together what the composer held as most important in his life: music, faith, and, not least, the pipe organ. Balint Karosi guides us through this remarkable set of music, coming up on The Bach Hour.
Hello, I’m Brian McCreath. Welcome to The Bach Hour from 99-5 WCRB, a part of WGBH Boston. The layers of meaning and symbolism Bach routinely built into the music he wrote is astounding. Each of the four collections of pieces he called Keyboard Practice is a masterpiece. But the third holds a special place, reflecting the composer’s debt to his predecessors as well as his own evolutions of what those composers had left for him. You’ll hear selections from these works with the thoughts and comments of a musician whose musical life is anchored by Bach, Balint Karosi. And remember that you can hear this and past episodes of The Bach Hour at our web site, Classical WCRB dot org.
Before we dive into Bach’s Clavierübung, here is flutist Emmanuel Pahud and the Berlin Baroque Soloists with a Trio Sonata in G, here on The Bach Hour.
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Brian McCreath Emmanuel Pahud joined the Berlin Philharmonic in 1993 as Principal Flute, and he was joined by some of his colleagues, known in this setting as the Berlin Baroque Soloists, in this performance of one of the two Trio Sonatas in G major by Bach.
The literal translation of the word Clavierübung is “Keyboard Practice”, and it’s a title Bach gave to four collections of pieces he wrote over the course of about fifteen years. For the third of these collections, Bach combined two elements that were cornerstones of his identity: Lutheran chorales and the pipe organ. Balint Karosi, who was, until 2015, the organist at Boston’s First Lutheran Church, recorded the entire Clavierübung III, using that church’s beautiful Richards, Fowkes, and Company tracker organ. And there’s a particular twist to this recording that gives us a rich context for Bach’s music. We’ll get to that in a bit.
The entire collection is framed by two pieces – a prelude and a fugue – that are often performed together. But by separating these pieces – one at the beginning and one at the end of the book, Bach infuses them with a significance that goes beyond a normal prelude and fugue. When I talked about this music with Balint Karosi, he unpacked what’s really going on in that first piece of the Clavierübung III.
Balint Karosi The Prelude in E-flat kind of sounds like a French overture, and it also foreshadows the main idea behind Clavierübung III, which is to feature these chorale preludes in a variety of styles, national, international styles, varied textures, and within the Prelude, you can already see that it's not just a simple organ prelude. It has the overture style. It has the imitational section. It also has a concerto style, so it features a lot of textures and a lot of different styles already, and that will be the main theme throughout the Clavierübung III.
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Brian McCreath That’s the opening Prelude of J.S. Bach’s Clavierübung III, a huge collection of works that explores the possibilities of the chorales that make up the musical expression of Bach’s faith. And it all starts with the music you just heard, a sort of demonstration of Bach’s mastery of a series of styles from around Europe. Balint Karosi was the organist at First Lutheran Church in Boston.
As an organist steeped in the history, traditions, and repertoire of his instrument, Balint Karosi is deeply familiar with the preludes Bach based on Lutheran chorales. Many of those chorale preludes originate in one collection, the third book of what Bach called Clavierübung, or “Keyboard practice.” I asked Balint Karosi how Bach chose the particular chorales for this set of music:
Balint Karosi There are eight chorales set in the Clavierübung III, and these are the catechical hymns that are drawn from the Small Catechism by Martin Luther, which are the confessions of the Christian faith. And these hymns represent the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. And therefore, Bach thought it - obviously, he was a Lutheran himself - and this was a very important part of his confession.
Brian McCreath So he was very specific. He wasn't just choosing, "maybe I like this piece of music." He was very specific about the theme of each part of this set of music.
Balint Karosi Yes. So the title reads the "Various Preludes on Catechism and Other Hymns." So there are the catechism hymns by Luther, and the other hymns are part of the Lutheran Mass and the Kyrie and the Gloria, which is "Allein Gott," the German version of the "Glory Be to God on High," the German translation into a hymn form by Luther.
Brian McCreath And for his recording, Balint Karosi teamed up with a vocal ensemble called Canto Armonico. By alternating Bach’s organ preludes with settings of the same chorales by earlier composers, we can Bach’s vision and genius emerge in more vibrant relief. Here is a set of four pieces based on the chorale “These are the holy ten commandments.” Balint Karosi is the organist, and Canto Armonico sings settings by Johann Hermann Schein and Michael Praetorius.
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Brian McCreath A set of four short pieces, all built around the Lutheran chorale “These are the holy ten commandments.” Canto Armonico sang settings by Johann Hermann Schein and Michael Praetorius, and Balint Karosi was the organist in the two preludes Bach included in the Clavierübung, Part III, all from a 2014 release on the Hungaraton label.
As Balint Karosi told me, the inclusion of the vocal settings is central to his concept of presenting this foundational set of works by Bach.
Balint Karosi I'm very thankful to Cheryl Rider, artistic director of Canto Armonico, resident group at First Lutheran Church of Boston, to put so much energy and supporting financially and also with her knowledge and this group. And this is really a group that brings together student vocal majors with professionals. And they learn from each other in a professional setting. Simon Carrington, former director of the Yale Schola Cantorum is the other artistic director of this group. And for this particular recording, we had flown over a German choral conductor from Lübeck, Ulf Wellner. He's a Praetorius scholar, and he knows this repertoire so well, and he puts so much into this recording. So you can really hear how he transformed the German pronunciation. The phrasing is very, I think, as accurate as we can get today.
Brian McCreath Wow. That's fantastic. No, it really does add an amazing color and context to these organ works that you just don't really experience. I mean, it's not just that sonic aspect that these choral interjections add. It's real meaning. It's real context. And as you say, it's even real accuracy to what we would have expected to hear.
Balint Karosi Yes, and it puts a historic continuity to its creation that comes from these simple but very powerful settings. For example, you will hear the simple settings, usually first, of the chorales, and they are already very beautiful. The chorale line is harmonized very simply. And in the Scheidt settings, for example, he already puts these chorales in the context of the Italian concerti. So he's doing basically the same as Bach did 100 years later.
And here once again is Canto Armonico and organist Balint Karosi, with settings of the chorale “Out of the depths I cry to thee” by Schein and Bach, here on The Bach Hour.
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Brian McCreath Four settings of the Lutheran penitential chorale “Out of the depths I cry to thee.” The vocal settings, performed by Canto Armonico, were by Johann Hermann Schein, who preceded Bach by just a little over a hundred years as the Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. And Bach’s organ preludes on the chorale were performed by Balint Karosi at Boston’s First Lutheran Church.
Earlier we heard the organ prelude that Bach placed at the beginning of the entire Clavierübung III. And Bach rounds out the collection with a companion fugue. Balint Karosi says that, once again, Bach literally writes the symbolism of past and future into the music to encapsulate the debt he owed to his predecessors and a simultaneous look forward in one piece.
Balint Karosi That is also a good representation of Bach's way of working with stile antico and modern styles. The first half of the fugue starts just like stile antico – the old-style counterpoint – with whole notes, almost always consonances on the downbeat and prepared consonances just like a 17th century motet. And a second section, the fugue has three parts, and the second fugue is more in the modern style. But what Bach does is he combines the more modern writing with the theme of the stile antico motet. So we have three different themes as well. And at the end of the fugue, he combines the three themes together and thus ends the whole set.
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Brian McCreath The final fugue of Part Three of J.S. Bach’s Clavierübung, with organist Balint Karosi at the Richards, Fowkes, and Company instrument at Boston’s First Lutheran Church. Karosi’s recording of the entire Clavierübung III, with vocal performances by Canto Armonico and directors Ulf Wellner and Cheryl Ryder, is available on the Hungaraton label.
Remember, you can hear this program again on demand when you visit us online at Classical WCRB dot org. Thank you for joining me today, and thanks also to audio engineer Antonio Oliart Ros. I’m Brian McCreath, and I’ll hope to have your company again next week here on The Bach Hour.