J.S. Bach, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti all came to be born in 1685 must be ascribed to chance; no juggling with the facts of cultural history can possibly account for it. Indeed, the common factor between them is precisely that they were all outsiders in one way or another: Bach because he was a Kantor, Handel because he worked in England, Scarlatti both because he lived in Spain and because he remained a very specialised keyboard player and composer. The insider would have been an Italian opera composer playing the European market. He would have been unlikely to be a virtuoso player. That was to come in Mozart’s time with the invention of the pianoforte.
Apart from all three being born in the same year, they had little enough in common. The startling new researches emanating from the Bach Archiv at Göttingen are, it is true, shaking the view of old Bach, the Lutheran archpriest in Kantor’s robe: but the emerging picture of the frustrated choirmaster passing into his puzzle-solving maturity can hardly be mistaken for the very worldly Handel, a great eater and drinker, an entrepreneur capable of winning and losing on the stock-exchanges, willing to chance his arm with new operatic ventures which nobody in their right mind would have given a more than fifty-fifty hope of success. Scarlatti was fond of gambling too, though, according to Farinelli, his downfall was at the tables – and one can imagine it, for, as the player of his sonatas soon finds out, you need a modicum of luck to negotiate his difficult passages. Practice will not ensure getting it right. For those crossings of hands, prayer and faith are likely to be a help.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KHzfD6XLK7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yo-Yo Ma - Bach, Cello Suites
How J.S. Bach,<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KHzfD6XLK7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Handel <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IUZEtVbJT5c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Domenico Scarlatti <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/s83GfIZ1G3w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
.
Apart from all three being born in the same year, they had little enough in common. The startling new researches emanating from the Bach Archiv at Göttingen are, it is true, shaking the view of old Bach, the Lutheran archpriest in Kantor’s robe: but the emerging picture of the frustrated choirmaster passing into his puzzle-solving maturity can hardly be mistaken for the very worldly Handel, a great eater and drinker, an entrepreneur capable of winning and losing on the stock-exchanges, willing to chance his arm with new operatic ventures which nobody in their right mind would have given a more than fifty-fifty hope of success. Scarlatti was fond of gambling too, though, according to Farinelli, his downfall was at the tables – and one can imagine it, for, as the player of his sonatas soon finds out, you need a modicum of luck to negotiate his difficult passages. Practice will not ensure getting it right. For those crossings of hands, prayer and faith are likely to be a help.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KHzfD6XLK7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yo-Yo Ma - Bach, Cello Suites
How J.S. Bach,<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KHzfD6XLK7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Handel <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IUZEtVbJT5c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Domenico Scarlatti <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/s83GfIZ1G3w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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