Sigiswald Kuijken's new Bach project

by Mark Wiggins

For many decades now, Sigiswald Kuijken has not only been a leading figure in the performance of music from the times of Bach to Mozart (and those two compositional giants in particular) but also a musical thinker of the highest order, constantly prepared to reconsider his interpretation in the pursuit of the original intentions of the composer.

Kuijken founded La Petite Bande (at the behest of Gustav Leonhardt) in 1972 and has directed innumerable performances and recordings of major works from the Baroque and Classical canons, including operas by Handel and Gluck, symphonies and oratorios by Haydn, the Mozart Requiem – both a ‘standard’ version with voices but also the fascinating Peter Lichtenthal version for string quartet made with the Kuijken String Quartet and available on Challenge Classics – and of course the three Da Ponte operas (Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte) made with his long-standing record label Accent (originally led by Andreas Glatt and now run by Hanno Pfisterer). Such works remain in La Petite Bande’s programming – a concert version of Don Giovanni can be heard at summer festivals this year in Beaune and Bruges (with the added attraction of the rising star of Nuria Rial as Zerlina).

The Belgium-born Kuijken is part not so much of a musical family but of a dynasty. In addition to brothers Wieland (cello, viola da gamba) and Barthold (flute, recorders) some may remember a Debussy chamber works disc on Arcana which also featured other members of the next generation: Veronica (violin), Sara (harp) and Piet (piano). And there are more!

The vast span of Johann Sebastian Bach’s output has been constantly revisited by the Belgian-born Kuijken, whether as a director or a solo violinist – he has made much-lauded recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas and of the Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord as well as Passions, Motets, Overtures and Concertos. As a profound thinker of the spiritual dimension implicit in Bach’s music it can be no surprise to find Kuijken returning to the sphere of the Cantatas and he has no qualms about entering the fray of Cantata cycles currently underway from the likes of Koopman, Suzuki or Gardiner.

Kuijken’s re-evaluation of Bach’s music is extending also to the nature of the instruments used in the composer’s day. A proponent of the violoncello da spalla (for more on this, read on…), he is currently bringing his ideas to fruition in a concert tour of Bach concertos and instrumental works, mainly in Japan but ending in the Belgian city of Leuven (where La Petite Bande is now the orchestra in residence). At the outset of his new Cantatas project and immediately prior to the Japanese tour, Sigiswald Kuijken spoke to Diverdi.

D.: Does the creation of a 20 CD Cantata project spaced over six years allow you to concentrate upon specific characteristics of Bach’s output (given that you do not plan to record all the cantatas and instead will be making a selection)?

S.K.: The project of recording one cantata for every Sunday of the liturgical year contains in itself the consequence that it will take several years to achieve this; our method is to combine the recordings with concert performances, in blocks of three or four cantatas at a time, and to do this as much as possible in the period of the year for which they were destined. Inevitably, this makes this spreading-out of releases unavoidable.

To take all this time is, of course, a good thing: ideas naturally undergo evolution, nor should we be afraid of this. I am constantly awake and alive to the prospect of becoming conscious of aspects that were – until now – perhaps not priorities. For me this project is rather like a school – it teaches me more than I had ever thought it would; just following my own developing ideas (and intuitions) brings me closer to Bach’s essence, and to the spiritual deepness of this particular kind of cantata music. So, in this sense, it is part of my own spiritual evolution – as a matter of fact I am becoming more and more attracted to mysticism in all human cultures from the past and the present.

The selection of the cantatas does not come down to aesthetics; instead it relies more on practical considerations such as instrumentation. Nonetheless, since all the cantatas seem to share this incredible beauty, need we worry more about individual choices?!

D.: Where the individual cantatas consist of a conjunction of liturgical texts and Bach’s peerless musical writing, what is the specific importance to you of the texts that he employed?

S.K.: The cantatas are the texts! There is no other specific importance of the text, you can not divide these pieces, they come to us as a whole. It is fascinating to see how Bach makes these texts his own, and organises his music totally in function of what they offer him: the overall structure, multiple changes of affekts (emotions), as well as employing some elements in order to describe what he wanted to reflect more or less explicitly (such as baroque principles would expect him to do). However, the most overwhelming achievement of Bach seems to me exactly that one which we cannot describe with just words: his amazing inventio which lifts up the idea of the text to a much higher (or is it deeper?) level. Even in his very numerous ‘parody’ fragments these characteristics seem still to be at work!

There are very, very beautiful texts amongst these cantatas – think of “Ich habe genug” [Cantata No 82] or “Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen” [Cantata No 56]. Every person can read the texts as he or she likes. What I am proposing also is to concentrate on trying to grasp the craftsmanship and artistry of the poets, by becoming aware of notions such as the prosody (versification, rhythms and rhymes). Gradually understanding more of these features helps tremendously to estimate and to enjoy the quality of these works, and to feel oneself what Bach must have felt and thought when he read them initially.

D.: Your use of reduced vocal and instrumental forces for the cantatas conforms to the ideas proposed by – among others – Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott (the idea of using one voice to a part, rather than a ‘choir’). How do you, as a musician who has performed and recorded Bach’s music across your long career believe that this approach helps to clarify the message of the music to a modern audience?

S.K.: In my opinion the cantatas become more themselves when you perform them with the forces that they where obviously conceived for (the opposite approach would be most improbable, no?). There is a matter of proportion, of a ‘correct’ coherence between the different elements of the ‘com-position’ as in (the ‘together-putting’, literally!). There is absolutely no need to adapt or ‘translate’ these pieces for our modern times or audiences, no more than there would be a need to change Greek Temples or Rembrandt paintings for our times. The closer you stay to the original (by not arranging!) the more the quality from within gets a chance to come through again.

As performers, we have to be good craftsmen – both in feeling and understanding – but we have to step backwards in time, in the presence of pieces like Bach’s Cantatas, so as not to stand in the way (by our vanities and pretensions) between the composer and the audience. Using a ‘magnificent’ Handel-esque sound or aesthetic for Bach is confusing and somehow not an intelligent option; nor for that matter would a Beethoven or Brahms sound be suitable (but to avoid any misunderstanding the reader should be aware that I love the music of Beethoven and Brahms, deeply, as they are – like all great composers!).

D.: Do the changed performing conditions – live or for recording – place extra demands on the musicians (both vocal and instrumental)? Do they act now much more as soloists? In this ensemble what is the place for a ‘conductor’?

S.K.: We have a very strong and understanding nucleus of singers and instrumentalists to make these concerts and recordings. Naturally, the live-recording process (with some corrections afterwards) is a demanding one – but we are being, so to say, ‘educated’ by this music. There is no feeling of individuals demanding the spotlight. The work is being carried out in a very positive and collegial way, with a strong feeling of shared responsibilities. A conductor – in the modern sense – does not have his place in such a context any longer, since this is performing in a chamber music-like sense. I play the first violin, when one is called for. In the other passages I keep quiet and let the others play! Of course, in the rehearsals (of all fragments) I ‘coach’ the work in progress, following my insight and opinions.

D.: You have recently also taken significant interest in the shoulder-held cello, the violoncello da spalla for some instrumental music from the 17th and 18th centuries. How do questions such the means of holding the instrument, its number of strings and tuning and its place in or outside continuo groups affect the sound of music by composers from the time such as JS Bach?

S.K.: In Bach’s output, the mentioning of the word violoncello is relatively exceptional and rare, as was also the case in the time that he lived in general. The violoncello was not a kind of conditio sine qua non, an ‘absolute basis’ for in every continuo group; quite the contrary. In those earlier years of the 18th century it was an exceptional, specifically called-upon instrument in some contexts – it played mostly an independent part, different (or at least partly different) from the general continuo part, when it was asked for at all.

Moreover, we are starting to see that the word violoncello during those years, and certainly in Bach’s field, did not mean the instrument we all know as the cello today, but rather the small bass instrument that was held by means of a strap around the neck, across the breast (generally tuned as our cello or sometimes with an added fifth string, tuned to e'): hence the violoncello da spalla. (The word violoncello is a diminutive of the word violone, which means a big viola.) In itself, the term violoncello does not refer at all to a specific means of holding the instrument (in spite of our ‘automatic’ association with the instrument as held today) – and it is clear that in Bach’s time the modern cello (held between the legs like a gamba) was only beginning its career – mainly in Italy and France. There is much more evidence of the ‘spalla’ cello in Bach’s works than of the one held between the legs, including the famous Suittes pour le violoncello.

For about one year now, we – at La Petite Bande – have been using the ‘spalla’ in earlier baroque music whenever violoncello is called for – for instance in Vivaldi Cello Concertos, or for the (rather rare) continuo parts in concertos where the part is specified for violoncello (such as in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or the D minor Double concerto of Bach). With its more or less bassoon-like sound, the spalla cello works very efficiently indeed, with a much clearer design of sound than whatever any other stringed-bass instrument can offer, and with a very specific quality of resonance, which makes a perfect mix and balance with the other instruments. In those occasions where only a cello was given the continuo line, the other parts were certainly not doubled; if doubling was required, there was a violone part as well, generally speaking. Sometimes, Bach and his contemporaries make a very sophisticated use of violoncello and violone next to each other (as is the case in the Brandenburg Concertos which clearly require no doubling of any instrument). Taking these indications in the sources à la lettre teaches us once more a great deal about matters such as sound balance and the composition of ensembles. In the Bach Cantatas, there are some solos written for violoncello or violoncello piccolo, all of which we are performing on the violoncello da spalla – in accordance with Bach’s own surviving separate parts.

In addition, contained within the individual Bach Cantata CDs on Accent, Sigiswald Kuijken has provided a guide to listening to the works.

© 2006 Diverdi, s.l.
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