A summer evening in Lagrasse

Lively, isn't it? Admittedly it was overcast, but I was still rather surprised that at the beginning of the peak holiday season there was absolutely no-one about, and most of the bars and restaurants were closed.

I was in Lagrasse to go to a concert in the series Fugue pas si classique which tours around a number of abbeys in the Aude. It was based on Bach's Art of the Fugue, but rather than just playing it straight, the lead violinist explained the logic and construction of fugues. If you sing or play in an ensemble you get used to listening to what goes on "inside" the music and how it fits together, but it was interesting to hear in more detail about how it was built up from theme to inversion, variations, "French style", augmentation and diminution, and Bach's exploration of numerology. They finally played the whole "unfinished" (or not) contrapunctus XVIII based partly on the letters of Bach's name as well as various significant numbers relating to it. Hearing the explanation and individual counterpoints first made you much more aware of the way the theme threaded through the work building up an airy structure of notes.

I remember once hearing an interview with Andras Schiff on the radio in which he said "Bach is the Father, Mozart the Son, Schubert the Holy Ghost." It's true that if you were restricted to three composers, Bach, Mozart and Schubert would be enough.