I Watched video of an Oct. 6, 2007, concert by Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music pianist Craig Nies performing "The Complete 48 Preludes and Fugues - The Well Tempered Clavier" by Johann Sebastian Bach, "Fantasia Baetica" by Manuel deFalla and "Polonaise-Fantasie" by Frédéric Chopin.
Nies performed in Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music. Part Four in an eight-performance solo series. The Complete 48 Preludes and Fugues: The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. This program includes works from Book 2, one of Bach's last works. Also included are Ravel's last work for piano, Le Tombeau de Couperin and one of Chopin's last works, his Third Sonata. Sponsored by the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation.
I was surprised by the way the musician presented the well known academic composition to the audience. He started jolly, smoothly and energetically at the same time. Making turns of sad and vivid parts, he managed to captivate the audience from the first sound and keep it focused all the time during the concerts. I believe it is impossible to do it other way playing classics like Sebastian Bach or Frédéric Chopin. All admirers of the music by these metres had an opportunity to plunge into the sound of pure history, eternity and inevitability the authors perhaps experienced while composing it. Anyway, the play by the pianist left none careless. It touched and amused deep within what is the most important with the playing technique of the musician.
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