Harpsichordist Geneviève Soly tackles this week the Book I of Well-tempered keyboard of Bach through two commented concerts. The very interesting experience demonstrates that Bach’s work goes well beyond a rhetorical exercise.
Geneviève Soly’s three evenings at Bourgie Hall this week replace the week of concerts scheduled for September and canceled due to illness. The lack of space in the timetable for this postponement restricts the exercise to 1st book in terms of “commented concerts”, the first of which was given on Tuesday, the second taking place this Wednesday.
These two sessions were preceded, Monday, by a two-hour conference on the ins, outs and musical processes presiding over the corpus.
By thus mixing mastery of the theoretical subject, animation of the evening (the “conference” side) and musical performances, on the harpsichord and on a sometimes stubborn organ (problem of “collage” in the Fugue No. 7 then registry problem in the Fugue No. 20 with interruption and resumption both times) Geneviève Soly seemed to have assumed her strength. Arriving at the end of the twelve steps, C sharp major and minor, she no longer knew whether or not she had presented the fugue to us in C sharp major then got tangled up at the end of her prelude before piloting the fugue on the radar. She was visibly under a big hit, as a cyclist who experiences a “craving” can feel in the middle of a breakaway at the Tour de France.
The secrets of tones
But the spectators did not hold it against the artist, because the exercise is very interesting for those who wish to deepen this universe. Geneviève Soly is particularly fond of the symbolism of tones which allows her to decline these Preludes and Fugues into a veritable “Treatise on passions”.
The explanatory approach also allows the listener to understand interpretive biases. Thus the more restrained tempo of the Prelude XX in A minor is explained by the fact that Geneviève Soly compares it with the fugue and draws a parallel with a “plea of a devout woman” as also relayed in painting. The rural character of the tonality of A major leads to the use of lute playing on the harpsichord. A reconciliation of sound Prelude with the language and style of Frescobaldi leads the performer to accelerate the last bars.
The listener is necessarily enriched by the exercise. Some will remember that F sharp major is the triumph in adversity, others will dig themselves into the relationship between the Fugue in C sharp minor and the Passion of Christ.
Even if it was tedious, the exercise consisting, quite frequently, in passing from the harpsichord to the Preludes on the organ for Runaways, was justified in such a context thanks to the very happy aptitude of the organ to be able to support the sounds; an undeniable advantage.
We wish Genevière Soly to find all her energy for the last session, this Wednesday.