Let’s go Bach to basics. For many, classical music is synonymous with Johann Sebastian Bach. The Baroque composer’s work will be the subject of a sonic experience, a 24-hour marathon on Saturday, August 13, with “Bach Around the Clock,” across the Toledo Museum of Art’s campus. The event will feature bach to bach orchestral and choral performances of seldom-heard Bach works by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, members of local choruses, and the ADJ•ective New Music Collective.
For the love of Bach
TSO members will use this opportunity to explore their favorite Bach compositions. First chair cellist Martha Reikow explains her excitement about performing “The Goldberg Variations.” “I first heard this transcription over 30 years ago at a festival in Vaasa, Finland, in a little church with great acoustics… It was a really moving experience and now I get to perform it myself.” Reikow will perform an arrangement for string trio, violin, viola, and cello, although the piece was originally written for harpsichord.
Bach out!
Merwin Siu, the orchestra’s principal second violinist and the creative mind behind this ambitious event, hopes to build upon the success of the TSO’s 9-hour Shostakovich marathon from last year.
“That was a really good experience. Working with Scott Boberg, the director of programs at the museum, was fun,” said Siu. “That started the conversation about doing more marathon-style events during the summer.”
Bach's music was selected because of its accessibility. Siu added, “A marathon concert is a chance for us to reach out to the community, and Bach is a good fit.”
Bach to basics
Bach Around the Clock will take full advantage of the TMA’s facilities. “When you’re working with both a 40-piece chorus and a 25-piece orchestra, there are few places that can accommodate that,” said Siu, laughing.
Pieces will be performed outdoors, staged to complement the Jaume Plensa sculptures, a connection Siu was excited to explore. “Plensa took much inspiration from classical music. The Heart of Trees sculptures are a self-portrait of the sculptor. There are seven of them, corresponding to the seven notes of the Western scale,” he said. Each of the figures is covered in the names of composers. “He’s very explicitly drawing a classical music link with these pieces.”
Bach Around the Clock is an opportunity to experience the German-born composer in a unique way. “These are timeless works,” Siu concluded. “People have made grandiose statements referring to these pieces as the defining masterworks of Western civilization.”
Tickets are $36. For a complete schedule of the event
and more information visit the TSO website at: www.toledosymphony.com
