German court music – it’s like a journey through Europe, says Alexander Grychtolik. As tour guides, he and his wife Aleksandra did an excellent job in the “Forum Alte Musik Burgfelden”, but their luggage was very heavy.
The keyboard instruments, which look like grand pianos and sound like stringed instruments, enter into a symbiosis with the room, the Old Church of St. Michael: the sober, more than 1000-year-old building and its Frescoes have a stronger effect due to the “German court music” played by Aleksandra and Alexander Grychtolik – and the music through the room.
The harpsichordist reveals that Italian music takes the audience along, after all it was an export hit in the 17th century, and because Johann Sebastian Bach was very interested in Antonio Vivaldi’s music, they hit his “Sinfonia” from the opera “Ottone in Villa” the bridge to the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 by the Thomaskantor – in a personal arrangement for two harpsichords.
Masterful improvisations ring out in the Old Church of St. Michael
Her improvisations are masterful
Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, on the other hand, was court harpsichordist to Frederick II of Prussia – his “Four Duets for Harpsichord” and the “Fantasia in F sharp minor for Solo Harpsichord”, which Aleksandra Grychtolik interprets alone, therefore required no editing. But in the second part of the concert, Alexander Grychtolik improvised – initially solo – and his wife with him so masterfully that the listeners were entranced.
The instrument with its fine sound does not forgive any inaccuracies, it demands precision in tempo and touch. Nevertheless, the married couple not only shines technically, but also gives soul to the pieces as well as to their own improvisations, works out the playful passages with a light hand, conjures up delicate sounds and savors the sonority offered by their instruments with relish.
With around 200 kilos, the Grychtoliks are moving into Burgfelden
With 200 kilos through the country
Aleksandra Grychtolik reveals that each of the two harpsichords weighs around 100 kilograms. So she and her husband not only travel through Europe musically, but also with heavy – and sensitive – luggage in Albstadt’s smallest district. The harpsichords are of course well packed, emphasizes the artist. Especially since they are fantastically decorated with shimmering gold ornaments – as beautiful as the music that emanates from their resonance chambers.
In the tradition of father and son
Anyone who can improvise so masterfully and seemingly effortlessly has truly penetrated music in general and the genre of German court music in particular, and so it has nothing to do with hubris that the two artists themselves in the style of Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Back compose and improvise, even if they label one of their works as “Baroque Improvisation of a ‘7. Brandenburg Concertos’ for two harpsichords”, thereby placing themselves in the tradition of the two masters.
The applause at the end of the concert just doesn’t want to break off
“The era of the harpsichord only began when Bach compiled the Brandenburg Concertos,” explains Alexander Grychtolik. That the surroundings of the Old Church of St. Michael must have particularly inspired him and his wife to celebrate the special features of this instrument: of course. Despite the long tradition of musical performances in the Forum Burgfelden, the old walls may not have heard a concert like this – and neither have most of the listeners.
In any case, the applause doesn’t want to stop at the end, that despite the long concert, it comes too early.
2023-08-29 19:44:04
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