Musical Legends Celebrate Bach's Discovery at Baldwin-Wallace College

Musical Legends Celebrate Bach's Discovery at Baldwin-Wallace College

Jazz star Dave Brubeck and the nation's leading classical music critics headline the nation's oldest collegiate Bach Festival

BEREA, Ohio, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- 75th Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival has brought musical dignitaries from across the globe to Northeast Ohio to celebrate the works of Bach and his impact on the musical world. This year's festival, the nation's oldest collegiate Bach Festival, will include an historic performance of the B-Minor Mass at Cleveland's Severance Hall on April 22.

In addition to the regular lineup of concerts, this year's festival also will feature a concert by jazz legend Dave Brubeck and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Joining them is a critic's panel composed of five of the nation's classic music luminaries: Anne Midgette, The New York Times; Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News; David Mermelstein, Los Angeles News; Tim Page, The Washington Post; and Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer.

During this year's festival will showcase an important missing link in Bach reception history, the story of how Bach's music was brought back into the forefront after decades of neglect. The discovery was found at the Baldwin-Wallace College's Riemenschneider Bach Institute by Dr. Russell Stinson, author of The Reception of Bach's Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms (Oxford, 2006).

"After Bach's death in 1750 his music fell out of the public eye for about 50 years-until Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, among other giants of the Romantic era, rediscovered its significance and began the so-called 'Bach revival,'" says Dr. Melvin Unger, Director of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute and one of the major collections of Baroque manuscripts and first editions in the Western Hemisphere.

Recently Bach scholar Russell Stinson made the discovery while working with a volume that had been owned by Clara Schumann. The handwriting of Mendelssohn and Schumann has been authenticated, according to Unger, and the researchers are confident that other notations belong to Brahms.

Part of the notations help solve the riddle of just how these artists integrated the organ pedal line with performance on the piano. The discovery sheds new light on the way that important 19th Century artists studies and performed the works of J.S. Bach and ultimately were able to lead the revival of interest in his work.

"This find provides important insights concerning the way in which these composers studied and performed Bach's keyboard works. This long-neglected artifact sheds new light on aspects of the Bach Revival, and will have great significance to Bach scholars," said Unger.

Video of the announcement by Dr. Stinson and a demonstration of the technique by Dr. Robert Mayerovitch, B-W professor of piano, can be found online at http://www.bw.edu/news/bach_find/.

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FCMN Contact:

Source: Bach Institute at Baldwin-Wallace College

CONTACT: George Richard, Director of College Relations of
Baldwin-Wallace College, +1-440-826-2328

Web site:

http://www.bw.edu/news/bach_find

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