Cartes a Bach
Interdisciplinary show of music, dance and theater:
Gabriel Fiol plays the first three suites for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach, accompanied by the traditional dances of the Baroque period.
Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer's wives, played by Carme Garí and Maria Estelrich, put their voices to accompany Gabriel as Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena Bach did with Johann Sebastian during his lifetime.
Concert
programme:
First letter: Maria Barbara Bach
Maria Barbara's first letter is addressed to her sister Catharina. We have placed this text on 16 May 1719, when Maria Barbara was thirty-four years old, a year before she died. We have imagined a hypothetical sister because we wanted her to be a character very close to her to whom she could tell her intimate life. Catharina is the name of one of his daughters.
I Cello Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Menuet I & Menuet II
Gigue
Köthen, 16 May 1719
My dear Catharina,
I am once again feeling a big nostalgia for Johann, who left Anhalt three days ago. Prince Leopold demanded his presence and for my husband, duty is more important than feelings. During these days together he has explained to me how he spends his time at the summer palace: he spends his time studying new scores and preparing with great dedication for the sovereign's birthday. His studious personality does not disappoint the prince, who shows him a good disposition towards his art, and Johann is deeply grateful to him.
He explained to me that the prince is an enthusiast of court ballet, and at the musical evenings organised at the palace, the musicians perform my husband's suites. I know that the prince himself occasionally entertains his guests by playing the Viola da gamba, and how I would love to be one of the guests and dance, even for a moment, with my Johann! For me it would be the dream I have imagined so many nights, here alone. I know that this atmosphere inspires Johann and, as he confessed to me, encourages his artistic creation.
One evening, before he left, we were visited by a cellist from the court. After dinner, Johann showed him the score of the suite in G major and I remember clearly the words he dedicated to him: "For me, this music is a river of notes in the Prelude, it is a carefree display in the Courante and gallant in the Minuet, but it still has its moments of darkness, and like a cloud when it is pushed by the wind, it disappears and the shimmering light comes out. It's like the chiaroscuro that Caravaggio's paintings provoke in me!"
Dear sister, I want to rejoice, and cheer your spirit, and drive out this incipient sadness that returns in my life when he is absent. I send you a copy of the first Suite with the wish that it may comfort you as much as it has comforted me.
Your beloved, Maria Barbara
Second Letter: Maria Barbara Bach
Maria Barbara's second letter is addressed to her husband, Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a farewell letter, she is not feeling well and is convinced that she has only a few days left to live and that they will not meet again.
II Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Menuet I & Menuet II
Gigue
Köthen, 7 June 1720
My dear Johann,
The journey has been very hard for me, this last pregnancy has sapped my strength and left me in a state of total laxity. I spend practically every hour in bed in a low mood.
I would like to come to Karlsbad and spend this time with you, but I think that I would spend all the hours of the day there alone. This would separate us and I could not bear it. The doctor, with my complaints, would not let me take the road either. He says that for an expectant woman like me it would be dangerous, and that my body would probably collapse before I got there. Yesterday he seemed worried.
(I am no longer that young woman who gave birth to seven children, so much time has passed since then, that now, while he is accompanying the prince to Karlsbad, I am living the last phase of my life, alone. My wish is that neither grief nor mourning for my absence will mark his future. His religiosity, love for our children and music will give him the strength to carry on with his life.)
My father, when he was teaching me, told me that music is the way to keep in mind the people who are already absent. Yesterday I needed to be close to you, and when I was rummaging through your sheet music I found the suite in D minor. Playing the Sarabande, you made yourself present. You gave me company and comfort because despite my will to go on, as this music does, I am predestined to fall. And I have to accept it...
(I know that when he comes home I will be gone).
María Bárbara, always yours
Third letter: Anna Magdalena Bach
The third letter is a monologue by Anna Magdalena about Bach: as a musician, as a person and their life together.
III Cello Suite No.3 in C Major, BWV 1009
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourrée I & Bourrée II
Gigue
August 1721
Hamburg, St. Catherine's Church
I am Anna Magdalena, the wife, Bach's second wife.
The first time I saw him was when I opened the door to visit the church in Hamburg and heard someone playing: out of the darkness came wonderful sounds, as if an angel was sitting on the keyboard. I walked along quietly and stared at the organ machinery, but I couldn't make out the organist. I don't know how long I spent in the empty, all-heard room.
Bewitched by that music, I did not notice the time passing. While the chords were scattered through the air. Until silence fell and I continued to stand outside myself, with my neck stretched out, waiting to hear it again. Suddenly, the organist, Sebastian, appeared and looked at me without flinching. I looked at him for a moment and, as a shiver ran through my skin, I picked up the cloak I had dropped on the floor, leaving with a sigh in the street.
❈-❈-❈-❈-❈-❈-❈
The next time we met at my father's house, a trumpeter at the Court, I was invited as a soprano. I did not take my eyes off him for a moment. The strength of his soul was expressed in his features: his powerful forehead, his extraordinary eyes, his eyebrows always furrowed as if he were deep in meditation. His intense gaze seemed to be directed inward, which was impressive. Sebastian's eyes were listening eyes that transmitted a mystical light, ... no one could look at him once and not look at him again. Above him hovered a magical aura that immediately communicated to anyone who approached him, whoever they were. You couldn't say he was handsome, none of the Bachs were, but I was not immune to his charm. I was very young and fell in love, so much so that I gave up everything for him.
During the thirty years I was married to Sebastian I was his friend, confidant, lover, carer, secretary and the copyist of his works.
During all the years we shared, Sebastian has left me his memory in every particle of my skin and my thoughts.
❈-❈-❈-❈-❈-❈-❈
March 2023
I like to think of Anna Magdalena that night. And I want to imagine her with a throbbing heart, when he brought her a booklet of music he had written for her.
That night, after putting Sebastian's four little children to bed, Anna Magdalena is copying a score by candlelight (not by an altar candle, which was expensive!).
He approaches her without fuss and places a green-bound notebook with leather spine and corners on the table in front of her.
He still has it now, and guards it jealously, and I am sure that however poor he may become, he will not part with it as long as he lives.
Imagine her with her hands impatient to open it: he will have written those compositions for her, and she will transcribe them.
You have to glimpse him writing those notes of the third Suite: the Sarabande which speaks of loss, remembrance and acceptance.
The Bourrée, joyful and pagesívola.
And the Gigue, exuberant, a dance danced by sailors ... Too cheerful!
I want to remember her, especially that night.
I would also like you to join me in imagining it, to enjoy it today and now, just as they did three hundred years ago.
Now, at this very moment, Sebastian is present among us.
Close your eyes and listen ...
Maria Estelrich