John E. Gardiner - Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (2013)

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013)

ISBN: 9780375415296 | 672 pages | ePUB + MOBI


Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque -- and occasionally so intemperate?

John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents' house, where it hung for safety during World War II. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer's greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime's immersion are distilled in this remarkable book, grounded in the most recent Bach scholarship but moving far beyond it, and explaining in wonderful detail the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects -- and what it can tell us about Bach the man.

Gardiner's background as a historian has encouraged him to search for ways in which scholarship and performance can cooperate and fruitfully coalesce. This has entailed piecing together the few biographical shards, scrutinizing the music, and watching for those instances when Bach's personality seems to penetrate the fabric of his notation. Gardiner's aim is "to give the reader a sense of inhabiting the same experiences and sensations that Bach might have had in the act of music-making. This, I try to show, can help us arrive at a more human likeness discernible in the closely related processes of composing and performing his music."

It is very rare that such an accomplished performer of music should also be a considerable writer and thinker about it. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.

About the author: John Eliot Gardiner is one of the world's leading conductors, not only of Baroque music but across the whole repertoire. He founded the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He has conducted most of the world’s great orchestras and in many of the leading opera houses.


Reviews

"It is hard to imagine what the English maestro John Eliot Gardiner might do to surpass Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven in its commitment, scope and comprehensiveness. [He] has done a masterly, monumental job of taking the measure of Bach the man and the musician." -- New York Times

"With Bach we seek the elusive man hiding, perhaps, under the dense, spectacular music. . . As eloquent a writer as he is a musician, Gardiner brings to his study the invaluable perspective of the practitioner. . . [Gardiner's] depth of knowledge permeates his writing." -- New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Gardiner writes in the refreshing voice of a man who has studied and performed Bach's music for decades. . . Like his conducting, the author's writing is lively, argumentative and passionate. He believes deeply in Bach's music and wants to understand each aspect of its construction. . . Bach's music is one of mankind's greatest achievements, and his genius touches upon matters eternal and profound. His choral music is less well-known than it should be -- especially the cantatas, which Gardiner lauds as 'gripping musical works of exceptional worth.' Spurred by Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, many listeners will discover them for the first time. In performance and now in print, Mr. Gardiner is Bach's most eloquent champion." -- Wall Street Journal

"It never happens often enough, but now and then, a subject gets the book it deserves. So it is with John Eliot Gardiner's Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, a biography so thoughtful, well-researched, and beautifully written that it should satisfy both the well-informed enthusiast and readers simply seeking to become better acquainted with a musical giant." -- The Daily Beast

"A superb, timely, thought-provoking, authoritative and extremely useful and readable book. It should find its way onto any serious music-lover's shelves. From there it must often and regularly be taken off and read." -- Classical.net