Francesco Cera plays Bach's French Suites

WALTMANS EARLY AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
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CD'S	FRANCESCO CERA PLAYS BACH Bach composed his suites for harpsichord bwv 812/817, later called French Suites, in Köthen. On Francesco Cera’s new cd we can listen to an excellent performance with a clear melody line. The harpsichord, made by Roberto Livi in 2006, is excellent too and the instrument has lovely clear deep notes. Time to have a short interview with the Italian musician and harpsichordist Francesco Cera. Francesco, can you present yourself as a musician/harpsichordist in a few words? My first love was the organ, which I studied and I still play in concert. My personal preference for baroque repertoire and historical organs has led me to approach quite soon the harpsichord, which I later perfected at the Amsterdam Conservatory under Gustav Leonhardt in 1990. Beside this I’ve always loved to play ensemble music: I was lucky to become member of Il Giardino Armonico for some years, then later, working on my own with several singers and with my Ensemble Arte Musica founded in 1996. Can you inform us about Livi’s harpsichord, technical details, compass, registration, pitch, and where to find the original one etc? Roberto Livi is a young and talented harpsichord maker from Pesaro, who attracted my attention and to whom I commissioned the copy of Tibaut I played in my Bach recording. The original is in Paris, Musée de la Musique, and is dating to 1691. Vincent Tibaut is regarded as one of the greatest harpsichord makers from 17^th century France, and several copies (but still quite rare) have been made of his instruments. The compass is GG to c’’ on two keyboards, with split keys for AA/C# and BB/Eb and the GG looking as a BB. It has two 8’ and one 4’. Measurements are quite short in the bass (the case is only 2.12 meters long) and relatively longer in the center-top. Pitch is A-415. The sound is more “concentrated” and polyphonic than the later French instruments that we are more used to listen, such as Blanchet or Taskin. Actually nobody uses Tibaut copies for play Bach! But I think the result is quite convincing, and we must consider that Bach, at the time he composed the French Suites, around 1720, had to play mostly late 17^th century harpsichords, probably also from French makers. It is not the first time the French Suites were recorded on cd. What were your intentions to do so again? What was your aesthetical point? French Suites has always had a special place in my Bach repertoire, a personal preference, for their simple and intimate style, if compared to the English Suites or the Partitas. Some of these pages are about the most touching in Bach repertoire. For instance the opening of E-flat Major Allemande, with their low, deep arpeggiato figurations, which rise and rise till the top of the keyboard, or the weeping c-minor Sarabande, or the majestic E-major Sarabande. So I think an expressive approach to these works could be tented. Listening to your performance. From the beginning I noticed some characteristics in the way you play the music. For instance you use a rubato-rhythm and sometimes I can listen to a kind of hurry up. What is your motivation? It’s just the way any harpsichordist uses to make the music speak and express its mood; anyone with his personal taste. My work with singers and vocal music perhaps helps me to make the harpsichord sing, so I put particular care to use the resonant side of the instrument. Rubato also, in a moderate quantity, helps the figurations to come out. All six French Suites include Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue, with additional other dance tunes between the sarabande and gigue. Does this make a difference in approach and performance? Every dance of course has its peculiar character and approximate tempo, but Bach never composes the same way! That struks me always! I think different tonalities and figurations has led me to adapt touch, tempi and rubato. A general overview of the six suites made me think of a possible symbolic conception by Bach. Three minor keys followed by three major arranged in a kind of progressive transformation let me think of some considerations concerning the religious view of human life, and the effective influence of God into human felicity. I think the d-minor first three dances express a deep human sorrow, which is the depart of the transformation I feel in these suites. In the second section of the B-minor Allemande a clear “cross” figuration appears, as in many organ chorals. The E-major Courante, written of scales and arpeggios in the top compass of the keyboard makes me think of an angelic chorus who praises God. And so on… maybe is my dream ... but religious inspiration was always viewed in Bach’s solo instrumental music. Gustav Leonhardt once wrote to me about ornamentations “be cautious, ornamentations are just ornamentations.” What is your point of view? Mr. Leonhardt has a great respect for the written page as a perfect composition in his details. I feel to agree with him regarding ornamentations, especially on Bach. I added few things here and there in repetitions. Some contemporary Italian music, especially violin sonatas, appears to need wider use of ornamentations, mostly in the repeats, ornamentations which coincide with a true art of variations invented by the performer. But this is part of the typical Italian taste of 18^th century; not in Frescobaldi! And Bach never needs that much too. Is there according to you a connection between “affects”, the use of the keys and a just intonation of the instrument during the performance? Yes, I try to understand the mood of the composition and adapt my performance, including registration. I didn’t use the 4 foot stop in every Gigue, or just one 8 foot in every Allemande. On the Tibaut you can play the two 8 foot stops with the two hands on different keyboards, and exchange them, without to hear a too large discrepancy but just a different colour. I used a Werkmeister III tuning, slidly modified when I played on B-minor key. Are you planning to record more music on cd in the near future? It always depends on the recording company to choose the performer propositions. After my former productions with Tactus on Italian 17^th century composers such as Storace, Rossi, Merula, I will be better propose French music, of course Bach and perhaps Scarlatti again. I wish good luck. Thank you! © 2008 Interview Heerlen - Roma by Frans Waltmans	Johann Sebastian Bach French Suites played by Francesco Cera Harpsichord SACD 47738-8/ 2 discs Release Date: October 1, 2008 www.artsmusic.de www.francescocera.it Francesco Cera www.francescocera.it Harpsichord by Roberto Livi