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Sviatoslav Richter on Bach

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Alan Turing

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Nov 10, 2012, 11:20:03 AM11/10/12
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On the cover of one of his CD collections "Richter plays
Bach"(STR-33820-4CD) there is a quote:

"It does no harm to listen to Bach from time to time, even if only from
a hygienic standpoint" by him of course.

This is completely lost on me and i was wondering if anyone could shed
some light on or discuss this seemingly enigmatic statement.
--
-AlanTuring

Matt Faunce

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Nov 10, 2012, 11:49:13 AM11/10/12
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I suppose listening from a hygienic standpoint means that one is
cleansing one's sensibilities from gratuitously romantic and sappy
gestures like grand rubatos, accelerandos, and crescendos, as well as
romantic compositional affects, e.g., rich harmonies of Wagner and Debussy.

--
Matt

Matt Faunce

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Nov 10, 2012, 11:53:17 AM11/10/12
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Edit: ... compositional effects, or affectations...

--
Matt

Fadosolrélamisi

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Nov 10, 2012, 2:34:18 PM11/10/12
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Bach's name translated in French = ruisseau = in English = brook ...
As long as it is not a cold shower (for the asylum prone brain), I'm all for a little Bach's hygienic cleansing from time to time ... it's indeed bringing me back, track, sack, pack, to my senses,You know, the good old common sense that makes for a balance life in all its endeavors.

John Nguyen

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Nov 10, 2012, 3:38:22 PM11/10/12
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> As long as it is not a cold shower (for the asylum prone brain), I'm all for a little Bach's hygienic cleansing from time to time ... it's indeed bringing me back, track, sack, pack, to my senses,You know, the good old common sense that makes for a balance life in all its endeavors.-

Speaking of the devil, I just listened to BVW 998 from David Russell a
few hours back this morning. All I can say is "Danm!"

John

Alan Turing

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Nov 10, 2012, 5:06:16 PM11/10/12
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love the whole 998 suite. Currently learning the 996 allemande

But i kind of see it now, the whole cleansing effect Bach has, so
solidly established in its fundamentals.
--
-AlanTuring

Fadosolrélamisi

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Nov 10, 2012, 5:23:45 PM11/10/12
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No Bach for me right now! I'm all clean. Mind you I have two of his preludes I can bring back in an instant if some kind of evil impurities creep in my soul.

Ruisseau rules!

Andrew Schulman

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Nov 10, 2012, 5:41:05 PM11/10/12
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On Nov 10, 11:20 am, Alan Turing <razulhun...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On the cover of one of his CD collections "Richter plays
> Bach"(STR-33820-4CD) there is a quote:
>
> "It does no harm to listen to Bach from time to time, even if only from
> a hygienic standpoint" by him of course.
>
It's a typo, it was supposed to say "hypodermic".

Andrew

John Nguyen

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Nov 10, 2012, 6:33:43 PM11/10/12
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> Ruisseau rules!-

I like the spanish translation a little more : Torrente. It sounds
bunchy and forceful :-)

florenc...@gmail.com

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Nov 10, 2012, 7:55:45 PM11/10/12
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Ok! Spanish is good. Now go help Jackhonsus ... The BWV 998 prelude bass rests is causing him to have an identity crisis dilemma.

Alan Turing

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Nov 11, 2012, 2:44:18 AM11/11/12
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in response to steven's email, to which i couldn't directly reply,

That's interesting you say that steven, I discussed it a bit with a few
friends and they suggested perhaps Bach's music has some kind of
cleansing affect on one's perception of music.
Therefore when he says hygiene he means to say Bach strips the mind of
all the excess baggage that has accumulated while listening to other
composers and firmly places one on the ground again.

Rahul

--
-AlanTuring

Alan Turing

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Nov 11, 2012, 2:53:54 AM11/11/12
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When i emailed my dad about the quote, he replied back with:

"Listening to Bach is like attending confessional"

I thought this was quite interesting as it very wholely captures my
state of mind. A rather primal one that delivers me into a realm where
truly I feel purged. Anyone else get this feeling?
--
-AlanTuring

Jay Reedy

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Feb 2, 2023, 12:31:11 PM2/2/23
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Confessional? A tad too catholic a reference perhaps.
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