The short performance will again go out on the Project 48 Facebook page, on Monday 1st February, this time at 1pm. Please join me then if you fancy a dose of Bach to start your week!

During last month’s stream I launched the Project 48 crowdfunder, which is funding the travel costs associated with putting on the live performances later this year. I have been so touched by the many donations to this, especially appreciating that finances are tight for many people during lockdown. Thank you so much to you all.

There is ONE WEEK left to reach the target on this crowdfunder! If you haven’t yet contributed, and you feel able, please consider doing so here:

Once these expenses are covered, the money raised by the project will be going to four fantastic charities: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Future Talent, and Live Music Now. They all do amazing work at all times, which I’ll profile further in due course, but their work is particularly important during the pandemic, and will continue to be as we come out of this strange time. So if you’re able to help make this project happen by contributing even just a little, you’re really ultimately helping them – as well as facilitating more Bach in all corners of the country, which can only make life better!

Inevitably the project is a bit slow to get going this year, but there are enthusiastic promoters in many of England’s 48 counties ready and waiting to confirm performance dates as soon as it’s possible to plan – with just a few counties for me still to line up. Meanwhile, these livestreams are a lovely way to keep in touch with you all and to share hints of the music that lies ahead (and they’re good for focussing my own practice, too, which isn’t easy in lockdown, without the usual deadlines and goals!).

I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations with friends recently, in the context of this project, trying to get to the heart of what it is about Bach that makes his music unlike anyone else’s. One wise friend commented that it’s self-sufficient: when he plays other music at the moment, he sorely misses the musicians he normally joins with, but Bach somehow overrides that – the music is complete and all-encompassing. For me, there is something utterly fundamental in this music: it taps into what another friend calls ‘the deep magic’ (Narnia fans will recognise the phrase) – the underlying mysteries of the universe, science, maths, art, space, time, that are somehow in this music. In the pub after a very special performance of the B Minor Mass a couple of years ago (ah, those halcyon days of concerts and pubs!), yet another friend commented, “I could never compose any of the music that I perform – but I can often imagine how it might feel to be able to write that music. But with Bach I
simply cannot even begin to imagine how it would feel to have the brain that created this piece.” I completely agree with that; to me, this music is on a different plane to anything else. And yet as I explore the 48 I find there’s something for pretty much every human emotion too – it’s music of the heart as well as head. My thoughts on this aren’t very coherent yet, but perhaps they’ll crystallise as the year progresses!

When I sat down to write this email I thought I’d search for an inspiring, uplifting quotation about the month of February, to set the mood, and provide solace given the gloomy weather and ongoing lockdown. The first I found was:

“February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous.” ( – Anna Quindlen)

That didn’t entirely do the job I was hoping for!! So I discarded that. But then I found this:

“Surely as cometh the Winter, I know
There are Spring violets under the snow.” ( – R. H. Newell)

I’ll take that! Stay well, and – whether in the season of violets, daffodils, or conkers – I look forward to seeing many of you later in the year for some Bach in person.

With best wishes,

Libby