Gustav Leonhardt ‘playing’ Bach
Below are three fragments from a 1968 movie (well: hardly anything ‘moves’, it’s more a ‘statement’), The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, original title: “Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (Straub/Huillet), in which Leonhardt plays the role of J.S. Bach. The movie stays as far away as possible from romantic Bach biopics. Hence the awkwardness of the players and the absence of any emotion in diction, kind of deliberately making a bad film. However, the mise-en-scène of the musicians performing Church Music is quite nice: around the grand organ, all together. Below the propaganda poster. Then three fragments, I cut from the movie, all with musicians performing a cantata (or even the St Matthew Passion) on an organ gallery: A ‘Historically Informed Performance’ from 1968. The musicians from Concentus Musicus Wien (and Schola Cantorum) directed by Nicolaus Harnoncourt + the Hannover Boys Choir.
One remark: In Bach’s time, there would only be 4 singers in the gallery for a normal cantata, and 8 for the (double-choir) passion. And they would be standing in front of the instrumentalist… For this see the ‘reconstruction’ image of the performance of the St Matthew passion
- the opening choir of the Saint Mattew’s Passion, BWV 244 (Kommt, ihr Töchter):
- recitative-aria ‘Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod’ (uit ‘Ich habe genung’ BWV 82)
- Overture and recitative from ‘Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats’ (BWV 42)