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It was a cold night in Hamburg and my hands were freezing…
I thought I’d share the stories behind my two new music videos, starting with this performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue from a concert in Hamburg at the end of October of last year.
This concert was a bit of a last minute thing; I was going to be in Hamburg to teach a Connected Continents workshop that weekend and I was free on Friday. Someone had very generously offered to loan me a harp in the event that I was able to set up a solo concert…
I got a list of potential venues from Henrik Schupp, and started emailing at the start of October. Despite this being less than a month before the date, one church said yes, they were available! (And at an affordable rate).
The church had some beautiful, reverberant, acoustics as well as, like so many older churches in Europe, no heating :) A chilly, late October night, with the pastor offering blankets to the audience as they came in… I had my gloves on trying to keep my hands warm before going onstage to play the first piece on my program – Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.
Cold fingers and hands make it hard to play, especially to start with, and I wasn’t sure how it would go. And yet, I felt in the zone that night and, despite not knowing how my hands would respond, everything came out very well.
(The worst was the last piece on the first half, Salzedo’s Variations on a Theme in the Ancient Style – the fast scales towards the end of the piece, in the upper register on the thinner strings, felt pretty biting. After that, though, I was very warm from playing, and that carried over through the intermission so that second half was no problem at all).
A good concert and memory and I’m happy to be able to share it with with you! (This video of my arrangement of the slow movement from the Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is also from that same concert).
Goldberg Variations
The other video I’ve just released is the Aria, the main theme, from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I’ve actually recorded it several times over the past couple months, but decided to do one last filming session on Friday, hoping to capture a special take.
I filmed for awhile with varying degrees of success (it wasn’t quite as memorized as I thought), and then right at the end of the session, my brother, Noah, had offered to help film with his gimbal (a device that allows you to make very smooth movements while holding and moving a camera).
Sometimes having an audience, someone else there to be a part of the experience, can bring an extra degree of focus and purpose, and that final take with my brother was the one I ended up using!
The Aria is the first of six upcoming videos of all six pieces in my book Baroque Music for Pedal Harp. To celebrate I’ve put the book is on sale right now!
I’ve also recently updated my store software so you should be able to pay in your local currency in many place – let me know if you run into any issues.
Updated edition of the Toccata and Fugue
In 2024 I toured my arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in Australia, New Zealand and Europe and in doing so I made a few small fixes and updates. That updated version is now available at my store and if you’ve already purchased a copy in the past, just send me an email (ideally with your original order info) and I’ll send you the updated version!
I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at these two music videos. Coming up this week keep an eye out for a Harp Tuesday episode, a new blog post about music publishing, and on Saturday, a music video of Bach’s Gavotte en Rondeau…
Thanks as always for reading!
Josh
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