Last week, I had the great pleasure to record two videos with Austrian guitarist and composer Florian Palier in support of his recent album Bach und Ich. The album fittingly juxtaposes two large works by J.S. Bach against his own compositions and improvistational musings that play off of the ideas in these pieces.
The first video is Palier’s performance of the first movement of Sonata in A minor BWV 1003. He writes, “The affect of this richly embellished movement is one of grief. The style of ornamentation harkens back to the Corelli school. In contrast to the improvisational practices of the day, which allowed the performer much freedom in ornamentation, Bach meticulously notates each ornament; this was not necessarily viewed as favourable to his contemporaries. Scheibe writes, “Everything that one already understands in the methods of playing, he writes out in actual notes.”
The second video is we recorded is “…the final movement "con brio" from my "Four Pieces" that I composed last year and that are part of my album "Bach und Ich". The piece is reassembling ideas introduced in the first three movements and bringing them to a conclusion. Fix elements contrast with an improvised cadenza in the middle.”