J. S. Bach (arr. Eller / Kerikmäe) – Adagissimo

by 5:4

One of the most incredible – and entirely unexpected – performances i’ve heard this year took place in Tartu University Museum in April, at a recital given by Estonian duo Anna-Liisa Eller and Taavi Kerikmäe. These two, in their combinations of kannel, keyboard instruments and electronics, exploring both contemporary and earlier music, have been responsible for some of the most powerful performances i’ve experienced in recent years (Kerikmäe’s rendition of Scelsi’s Maknongan was featured a fortnight ago; Eller’s is coming next week). They utterly outdid themselves on this occasion, with an entirely new take on a piece of music by J. S. Bach, the Adagissimo section from his Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother (BWV 992). For context, i’ll quote from my review of the concert:

Beforehand, Kerikmäe recounted the famous tale that Bach composed the work for the occasion when his brother was leaving to join the military band in the army of Charles XII of Sweden. This was in 1704, during the ongoing Great Northern War, and Kerikmäe pointed out that at the very same time, and in the very same war, Tartu itself was attacked and captured by Russian troops in June of that year. Four years later the city was destroyed and its citizens deported to Russia. It was with that sobering memory in mind that we heard the Adagissimo

So this was music heard in a building still physically showing, in its ruined state, the effects of Russian occupation, within a city previously destroyed by Russia, in a country previously occupied and violated by Russia, being performed at a time while Russia continued to wage its latest insane war of aggression, by musicians both of whom were born and for a time lived under Russian occupation. To say the performance was highly-charged is to put it extremely mildly.

In essence, the duo presented the piece, performed twice, as an emotional diptych. First, on kannel alone, Eller took time to shape the despondent contour of the music, so often sounding pulled down as if by an invisible gravitational pull even as its melody sought to climb. At times during this, vague notes emanated from Kerikmäe’s electronics, almost accidentally (which, at the time, is precisely what it seemed to be). Yet as Eller restarted the music (~3:16), it quickly became obvious that this was a deliberate, entirely opposite mode of expression coming to life. Eller fell away, and Kerikmäe’s electronics blurred through the progressions, undermined by rumble and judder, until Eller returned, now on an amplified kannel. From here, the duo pushed the Bach to ever greater immensity, and extremity, caking it with noise and distortion, both fuelled by and channelled into rage. Though they never lost sight of the music, their grip on its clarity become ever more tenuous, Bach’s cadences almost forgotten in the vibrating fug that filled the space, not so much ending as coming out the other side in an incandescent haze of stranded pitch, the last having such intensity it was as if the air itself had been burned.

This version of the Adagissimo from Bach’s Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother was performed at the Tartu University Museum on 27 April 2024.

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