Tomà Iliev, first violin soloist in the performance of Bach’s 1064R concert (screen shot from the video being discussed)
At the end of last week, American Bach Soloists (ABS) announced the release of a new series of music videos to be uploaded to its YouTube channel. The first video to be made available presents a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 1064R concerto for three violins in D major. The soloists are Tomà Iliev, one of the three recipients of this years Jeffrey Thomas Award, who was first soloist when this concerto was performed at the ABS Triples Alley concert at the beginning of this month, Jude Ziliak, recipient of the 2018 Jeffrey Thomas Award, and David Wilson, who was third soloist in the Triples Alley performance. The ensemble parts were also taken by single performers: Cynthia Keiko Black (first violin), Gail Hernández Rosa (second violin), Ramón Negrón Pérez on viola, William Skeen on cello, Steven Lehning on violone, and Corey Jamason on harpsichord.
Artistic Director Thomas conducted. Filming took place in the Great Hall at the Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. Eddie Frank provided the video capture, and Chris Landen was responsible for the audio.
Assigning a single player to every part brought an impressive transparency to the listening experience. In addition Frank’s video work provided an excellent guide to how the individual soloists smoothly alternate between “foreground” and “background” roles in executing their respective parts. What was missing, however, was any visual sense of the entire ensemble.
Every camera angle was limited to the image of a single performer. Furthermore, the relationship of each performer to the tapestry behind the performance space suggested that there was no camera angle that had the potential to capture the entire ensemble. Rather, it seemed as if the process began by making the audio recording, after which videos would be captured of each performer playing his/her respective part, most likely while listening to that “complete” audio recording.
If this was, indeed, how the video was made, then I have to confess that it thoroughly rubbed me the wrong way. The very idea of any concerto is the interplay it provides between soloist(s) and ensemble. Removing the ensemble from the field of view undermines an opportunity to appreciate that interplay.
By way of comparison, consider the Voices of Music video made by David Tayler of Bach’s BWV 1048 (third) “Brandenburg” concerto in G major. In this case the music has solo parts for three violins, three violas, and three cellos; but what makes the composition so interesting is how Bach commands a fluidity in requiring each soloist to alternate between foreground and background. The increase in the number of players makes this a more sophisticated concerto setting than that of BWV 1064R. However, the fluidity behind the execution of each individual part can only be appreciated when one views the entire ensemble; and, to reinforce that point, Tayler’s video seldom homes in for any close shots over the course of the entire performance.
I have enjoyed enough ABS programs to appreciate how video can add to the insights that emerge from just about anything they have played in concert. However, those insights can only arise if the video production team is aware of what those insights are and can then develop a production design that will honor them. No musical offering should be subjected to a video account that runs contrary to the listening experience. Even the creative team behind Fantasia knew that!
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