Conductor Masaaki Suzuki lives in a J.S. Bach world.
He founded a Bach performance group in 1990 called the Bach
Collegium Japan, which is currently recording all of Bach’s
200-plus cantatas at the rate of about three a year. Suzuki’s
wife sings with the group, and his son plays organ in the
ensemble.
“I can’t escape from Bach’s music because it
is so interesting,” Suzuki said. “Once you go into the
cantata works, you can’t escape.”
Suzuki hopes to invite others into his world for Royce Hall
performances of Bach’s “St. John’s Passion”
on Friday and “St. Matthew’s Passion” on
Saturday. He hails from Japan, where he teaches harpsichord and
organ at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, but like Bach, Suzuki
is also fluent in German and is a practicing Christian. In fact,
the Bach Collegium’s first trip to America in a performance
of Bach’s passions, based on the biblical life of Jesus, is
in no small part due to Suzuki’s devotion to playing the
pieces around Easter time.
“These works should be performed just before Easter,
actually during Holy Week. In Japan, there is no tradition for
performing the passion works at Easter time,” said Suzuki,
who has been performing the passions at Easter time for over a
decade.
Of course, Suzuki’s program may not appeal to
non-Christians. Classical music today is also notorious for the
typically elder audience it attracts. Suzuki, however, believes
that all people can find some meaning in Bach’s music, no
matter what their age, creed or taste.
“I think it’s completely possible to enjoy
Bach’s music as music itself,” Suzuki said. “On
period instruments, it’s possible to give a rhythmic
performance, which is easy enough for any audience to
enjoy.”
The “period instruments” Suzuki refers to are
imitations of instruments which Bach himself would have used in
performance. The actual sounds of the instruments are different,
because of the technological developments helping instruments fill
up larger concert halls that came after Bach. Suzuki’s
historical bent is also seen with his fascination with the
composers who influenced Bach, specifically Dietrich Buxtehude and
Heinrich Schutz. Suzuki’s specialization keeps him from
playing what many consider to be “classical music,”
that is, the music of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and others. On
the contrary, Suzuki has little experience with the modern symphony
orchestra, and he hesitates at the idea of playing more 19th
century works.
“The classical repertoire is also in my view, but at the
moment, I don’t have time to extend that much,” Suzuki
said.
Having such tunnel vision into Bach’s works, Suzuki can
see the evolution of Bach from talented beginner to master. His
performance of the cantatas alone give him insight into the
compositional nuances that another less specialized group
wouldn’t pick up on.
“There is no cantata which is really boring,” Suzuki
said. “You can see all the time some details where Bach is
trying to do something new and different. Sometimes it’s too
complicated to understand.”
For example, in performing the “˜St. John’ and
“˜St. Matthew Passion’ side by side, Suzuki accentuates
the differences between them. The “St. Matthew
Passion,” in particular, was the subject of revival in the
19th century and has been generally considered to be the more
important work. But Suzuki finds equal merit in Bach’s
shorter “St. John Passion.”
“”˜St. John’ is very interesting because
it’s much more direct. “˜St. Matthew’ is a much
more meditative work with contemplative characteristics.
“˜Matthew’ is much more famous, maybe because there are
more beautiful arias than in “˜John,'” Suzuki
said.
But as compelling as this is hair-splitting for Suzuki, he still
believes his dedication will rub off on a younger audience that is
not as in touch with these subtleties. The first thing one can do
to enter Suzuki’s passion is to listen to Bach without
preconceptions.
“I tell younger people not to think too categorically
about music,” Suzuki said. “I think the essence of the
music has quite a lot in common with popular music, jazz, rock and
so on.”
“I don’t want my product to be categorized in a CD
shop as classical music,” Suzuki added. “There should
be a new category, like “˜Bach.'”
The Bach Collegium comes to Royce Hall this Friday and Saturday
at 8 p.m. Call the CTO at (310) 825-2101 for more information.