The Leipzig Bach Festival is considered the largest musical festival in Germany. Pastor Werner Neuer (Schallbach near Lörrach) was there for the evangelical news agency IDEA and had a conversation with the Japanese conductor and evangelical Christian Prof. Masaaki Suzuki (Bach Collegium Japan).
IDEA: Mr. Suzuki, on the evening of June 18, you and your Bach Collegium Japan performed Bach’s Mass in B minor for the first time in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, perhaps his most powerful work. The audience was noticeably moved to hear the Christian message and this highlight of European music performed by artists from distant Japan, because hardly any Japanese are Christians. How did you experience the concert personally?
Suzuki: It was really a wonderful experience. Of course, this applies mainly to the musicians from Japan. But we are all so close to Bach’s music now, even though most of us are not Christians. But we can all easily share the feeling for Bach’s music.
In Japan, of course, only about one percent of the population are Christians. But the Christian culture is widely accepted. For example, every Japanese celebrates Christmas. Although Buddhist and Shinto influences dominate in Japan and there is no Christian culture, Christian music is often performed and accepted and enjoyed by many people. That’s why in the meantime in my life I have stopped asking whether the listener is even a Christian or not. Because the music itself always works! And you never really know how. Therefore we have no responsibility for it. We have to concentrate completely on the music and perform this music as perfectly as possible. That is our task. Because nobody can really assess how the Christian culture affects Japan. For example, every year during Holy Week we have the performance of the St. Matthew Passion. And there are always around 2,000 people present. Christian culture influences many more people than just Christians.
IDEA: As a teenager, who accompanied the service of a small Christian community in Kobe with the harmonium, you first came into contact with Bach’s Mass in B minor through a record – recorded by the legendary Munich Bach interpreter Karl Richter. According to your own statements, you have heard this record about 1,000 times. What impressed you so much about this work of Bach from a young age that it still fascinates you to this day: How do you explain this?
Suzuki: That is very difficult to explain. My first impression of the B minor Mass was: it is such a gigantic work that it is basically incomprehensible. The sounds are so wonderful and at the same time so complicated that I actually couldn’t understand anything directly about the content of the music. But back then I played the trumpet in a brass band [Bläser-Band]. And the trumpets in the B minor Mass are always so intriguing. That’s why I fell in love with this work in the first place.
IDEA: The trumpeter on the record of that time was the famous Adolf Scherbaum.
Suzuki: Exactly. I have a pretty good story to tell you about that. We have in Ansbach [wo regelmäßig eine Bachwoche stattfindet, d. Red.] performed the B minor Mass and I gave a newspaper interview. After the concert, a woman came and said, “I’m Adolf Scherbaum’s wife.” That’s really amazing and moving. I spoke briefly with his wife and it was a great pleasure.
I couldn’t really understand the B minor Mass at first, but after that I gradually came to understand its very beautiful musical lines, its polyphony (many voices) and its very good harmonic structure and phrasing. That’s very fascinating.
IDEA: It takes a lifetime to study the Mass in B minor.
Suzuki: Secure. And the B minor Mass has always been my favorite piece next to the St Matthew Passion.
IDEA: Asked more generally: How is it that you have been devoting your skills as a musician to the work of Thomaskantor Bach for over 50 years and have experienced an almost overwhelming response to your concerts in your non-Christian home country, but also in many other countries?
Suzuki: I don’t think I ever chose Bach as my favorite composer, rather I was “chosen” – or “destined” – to make Bach’s music. And once you study Bach’s music, it’s easier to understand Mozart or Beethoven or other later composers. And there are no composers after that who were not influenced by Bach. So when Bach was at the center of my life, it became wonderful. And that’s why: What I do is actually just that I bring Bach’s music to bear on myself. It also works on others – whether in Japan or in other countries. So it’s about making music effective and valuable for all people. In every country there is always someone or an audience that is really excited about this music. That’s my belief.
IDEA: And you have also experienced that internationally over many years.
Suzuki: Exactly. That’s why we’re trying to reach more Asian countries like Singapore, Taiwan or China these days. And I still have no idea how many people will really be so enthusiastic about Bach’s music. But I think that this will be the case in Asia as well as everywhere else. Although this is of course German music and German cantata texts, which are not so easy to understand, this music by Bach also gives an understanding of the texts due to its harmonic and symphonic structure.
It is very important that we gain an understanding of the texts. That’s why in Japan, for example, we study the texts quite often. Because the lyrics aren’t in Japanese, Japanese people always have to make an effort to understand them. It’s like the Bible: Nobody reads the Bible in the original languages. Everyone reads them in translation. Therefore, translation is a very important part of musical interpretation. So I think the same things are happening around the world as in Japan.
IDEA: Years ago you confirmed in an interview that you first got to know Bach’s instrumental music (for piano, organ and orchestra) before you discovered and intensively studied his sacred music (cantatas, motets and passions). There are music lovers who say: “I love Bach’s music, but I have great difficulties with the Christian message and the old German of Luther that Bach expresses in his sacred music.” What advice do you have for such people?
Suzuki: That is of course very difficult. The instrumental music is easier to understand. That’s why in Japanese history, where European music, Bach’s music was accepted in the past, people began with harpsichord concertos or piano pieces, etc. And only much later did the Matthew Passion and vocal music come.
And in my personal history it happened like this: I played the trumpet at first and then picked out quite a few cantatas with trumpet by Helmut Rilling and others. But it was only much later that I understood that the trumpet is not just a brass band instrument: it has a symbolic meaning in Bach’s cantatas! After that, I was more interested in understanding the lyrics. In this way, Bach’s music itself leads us more and more towards understanding the texts. When I was still a student in Tokyo, some students had the crazy idea of only listening to Bach’s cantatas. We got together every Friday and then we had exchanged so many impressions about the cantatas, but without knowing anything about the content of the cantatas’ texts. But still, Bach’s cantatas are so fascinating because of their pure music. And only after that did we actually come to a more precise understanding of the texts. So the content is to be understood from the music. Once you get into this world of cantatas, there’s no escaping it: organ music, for example, is powerful enough to lead us in the right direction. It is similar in structure and sound to Bach’s vocal works.
IDEA: So you would encourage people to try to understand the biblical and ecclesiastical texts in Bach’s work, even if it is difficult?
Suzuki: Bach’s music is actually not only there for understanding, but one can use its beautiful melodies in many ways to get into Bach’s world.
IDEA: According to Bach, music should not only teach (Latin docere), but also move feelings (Latin movere) and delight (Latin delectare).
Suzuki: That’s why no one is forced to understand the texts. Once interest in Bach’s music is aroused, the content of the texts and the motive for studying them come naturally. So you don’t have to make an effort to understand the lyrics.
IDEA: Basically, you just have to be open to encounters. What experiences did you have with the many non-Christian listeners in Japan with the biblical texts? Apparently, audiences respond with amazement and respect rather than rejection. Can you confirm this?
Suzuki: Yes. From what we see in our performances – in the concert hall or in the church – there are so many people listening with great respect and interest. This is really wonderful. And actually I can’t really explain why people accept the vocal music. Even if they are not Christians, they are not negative. I mean, they have quite a sympathy for the Bible, even though they’re not Christians yet.
IDEA: You are a reformed Christian. In my opinion, Bach’s Mass in B minor shows that the Thomaskantor did not want to spread a denominational conviction – especially since his sovereign Augustus the Strong was “Catholic” – but rather the biblical, early church view that encompassed all denominations. The late Pope Benedict XVI. saw in Bach, as he wrote for the Leipzig Bach Festival 2021, above all a preacher of Christ, whose “fragrance” (2 Corinthians 2:14f.) resounds through the “beauty” of the music for “Christians and non-Christians” and has a pleasing effect worldwide evoke. Do you think this broad understanding of Bach’s sacred music is appropriate, or does it go too far?
Suzuki: It is true that I belong to the Reformed Church in Japan. And I am very fortunate to be a Reformed Christian. The Reformed teaching that God is at work in all people through “universal grace” is an encouragement to perform and let Bach’s sacred music be performed everywhere – not only in churches but also in secular concert halls. In any case, Bach’s cantatas remind the listener of biblical truths because their music makes the relationship between biblical texts and music recognizable. This relationship is capable of influencing any listener’s situation, regardless of their religious beliefs.
IDEA: So can Pope Benedict XVI. agree when he emphasizes the universal effect of Bach’s music that goes beyond the Christian denominations?
Suzuki: Yes that is wonderful.
IDEA: In my opinion, as a theologian, one must distinguish between the universal ecclesiastical term “Catholic” (in general) and the denominationally restricted term “Roman Catholic”. In this universal, non-denominational sense, the Mass in B minor is definitely “Catholic.”
Suzuki: That’s correct.
IDEA: What does the music of Johann Sebastian Bach mean to you personally?
Suzuki: The music of Bach has always stayed with me since my youth and I never chose Bach myself. I just live with this music and this is a godsend. For me personally, Bach’s music is the most important music. Although I perform not only Bach but also other composers (Mozart, Beethoven etc.), I always come back to Bach after performing other composers and feel at home. That’s a wonderful feeling. I’m quite simply happy with Bach. And I experience this feeling as a great gift from God.
IDEA: Thank you for the interview!
2023-08-02 13:44:55
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