Bach, Bark, and Looking Back

I told myself: “This is the last one.” The Olympics were nearly over, yet I was still initiating classical music searches inspired by the Games. 

As it turned out, the last search was well worth the effort. And it was suggested by a piece of music with which I opened Classic Mornings on February 17. 

I can assure you that I didn’t find any references to St. Bernards at Milano-Cortina. I did see a photo of the U.S. Ski Team, taken before the Olympics, with two St. Bernards posing in front of the athletes, one on each side of the group. That was all.

But I learned a few things about St. Bernards from a website called About Switzerland.  The dogs were named for the St. Bernard Pass, which connects Switzerland and Italy in the Alps. Monks in the 11th century, led by one with the name Bernard, established a hospice to assist travelers along the mountain pass. The monks were accompanied by dogs who were able to endure the weather conditions and to assist in protecting travelers and in rescue situations. The dogs had been gifted to the monks by residents of the surrounding communities. One breed acquired the name St. Bernard.

You’re probably wondering how the piece I played that morning suggested the search.  Well, I remember from looking into the biography of the late 19th, early 20th century pianist/composer Ferruccio Busoni that he had a huge St. Bernard. He named it Giotto, after the late 13th, early 14th century Florentine painter.  Like the painter’s works, the dog attracted a lot of attention, though for different reasons. 

All of that has nothing to do with the chorale prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme” (“Awake, the voice calls to us”) by Johann Sebastian Bach, which has come to be known as “Sleepers, Awake.”  Bach didn’t write the chorale (hymn) tune. But he did write an introduction to it, which has become famous.  And that chorale prelude is just one small sampling from volumes of piano transcriptions which Busoni made of Bach’s organ music. 

This year marks the centennial of a piano transcription of a Bach work.  For years I’ve played the one by British pianist Myra Hess (1890-1965) of a chorale prelude from another of Bach’s cantatas. It’s commonly known by the English title given to the transcription by Dame Myra: “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”  Her birthday anniversary was on Wednesday (February 25).  In a collection of recorded performances by Myra Hess in the Friends of WILL Library, there are three different recordings which she made of her arrangement of the Bach work: in 1928, 1940, and 1957. 

A pop single titled Joy, based on the opening of the famous piece, made it to “Number 2” on one of the Billboard Magazine weekly charts in 1972. Can you name the group? It was Apollo 100. And it was their only hit.

If “Apollo” takes you back to the last century/millennium, so did a story I came upon a couple of weeks ago. I was reminded that the first time I hosted classical music programs was in college. There weren’t a lot of classical recordings at the university’s radio station.  But the station featured only a few hours of classical music each week. The LPs that we had were donated by a station that played considerably more classical music. That’s not to say that there weren’t some memorable recordings.

One of those featured piano music of Claude Debussy, played by the Hungarian pianist Tamás Vásáry. Years later, I had the chance to meet the pianist and to interview him. I remember looking forward to telling him that he had introduced me to the two Arabesques of Claude Debussy with that recording and that I particularly enjoyed the first of the two. I remember that he humbled the piece by explaining, theoretically, what Debussy had done. Theory or no theory, he didn’t change my mind about it.

I learned on February 13 that Tamás Vásáry died on February 5, at age 92.  I’m sure I had mentioned the story once before on Classic Mornings. But I shared it again, along with Vásáry’s 1969 recording of the Arabesques by Debussy, which was released in 1970.

I never could have imagined back then that someday I would be hosting classical music radio programs for decades. I’m guessing that I sound a little better than I did back then. I certainly have learned how to correctly pronounce quite a few names over the years, including Tamás Vásáry’s. More than that, I’ve had an incredible classical music learning experience! That hasn’t ended, nor has the excitement of sharing what I’ve learned with listeners. So, join me for Classic Mornings, Monday through Friday from 9 - noon on Illinois Classical 90.9 FM or online at will.illinois.edu.