Happy Birthday to Bach!

Happy 337th birthday to Johann Sebastian Bach! (In fact, owing to changes of calendars since 1685, we can celebrate it on 21st March or 31st… but I was busy on 21st!).

It has been the most remarkable privilege to live with Bach’s incredible music so intensely in the last year: I’ve never had this type of relationship with any other music in the same way – performing it so many times, in such different ways and places, to such different audiences – large and small, expert and novice, formal and chaotic. It’s a real treat to have this opportunity to live with the music, to change my ideas, to experiment: there is SO much detail in it, and so much of life in it, and it’s rare to have the chance to play around so much with how I put my thoughts across in a particular piece of music – what works well, what works less well, and simply the different ideas and perspectives that each day brings.

I’ve been struck recently by how exhausted so many people are at the moment: I think, during the worst of the pandemic, everyone was coping in some type of crisis mode, whereas now there’s a deeper tiredness as people still face uncertainty, and indeed illness, but whilst their brains are simultaneously receiving messages from the world that everything should be ok! I suppose people are also beginning to process the various losses they’ve experienced during the last couple of years, and that takes emotional energy too. For me, after the mad, intense, exhausting, rewarding run of performances through the summer and the autumn, and then such an annoyingly long break over Christmas, it’s been quite a slog to get this project up and running again – perhaps that exhaustion is part of why! I’ve also been preoccupied with relocating from one end of the country to the other, and have been fortunate to be swept up in a busy time of other work (something that was unimaginable when I conceived Project 48 in the depths of strict lockdown! I don’t think any of us ever believed we’d have any normal work again!).

So it was with some trepidation that, a couple of weeks ago, I approached the first project performance since November – a MUCH longer gap than planned, courtesy of different cancellations and postponements. Playing this music last year had, in the end, started to become more manageable, as I found my way round it with increasing conviction – but I was concerned I would feel right back at square one now. Well, it turns out that playing this music so very much does in fact pay off! My fingers do remember how to play it, and the shapes of the music feel so familiar and clear in my mind. The benefit of a longer gap is coming back to it freshly; when you give a long run of performances, it’s easy to fall into habits of playing things in a particular way, of listening less carefully. So it’s been a joy to have the chance to reassess and revisit. And, as I found myself returning to seriously preparing this music, I’d find myself breaking out into a mad grin (and/or tears) in my practice room, because of the sheer brilliance of what Bach has written.

So, folks – this thing is back on! At LAST there is a new fundraising platform for the project, which you can find by clicking here. Virgin Money frustratingly closed down their service a couple of months ago, and it’s taken until now to find another platform which allows the division of proceeds between four different charities – clearly a gap in the market if anyone wants to invent something to fill it… Thankfully, Sponsor Me allows just that, so now I can start building on the £26,400 raised in the first part of the project. If you’d like to get things going by dropping a few pounds in on the new site, you would be most welcome!

There are a few forthcoming performance dates on the project website now, and more in the melting pot to be added imminently now that I’m back in the game. Apologies, everyone, that that’s taken longer than planned. But it’s great to be back – to be supporting these four incredible charities, and to be continuing my personal pilgrimage with this brilliant music. Thank you to everyone who’s been part of it so far, and I can’t wait to share this music with many new people too, in all corners of the country.

Oh – and thank you to the two illustrious, inspiring musicians I bumped into in the pub after seeing the (shatteringly brilliant) ROH Peter Grimes the other night. They’ve had their fill of creating and sustaining mad projects, and they’ve had their fill of the ups and downs of performing. They know who they are, and their sage words of encouragement were the right thing at the right moment to get this thing going again. 🙂