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| Frank Liebscher (frank-liebscher.de) |
A Christmas concert
of a very different kind took place at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in
Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday December 21st 2019. Johann Sebastian Bach, one
of the greatest composers of all time, was a devout Protestant. It therefore stands to
reason that his music should be played at the seat of the Provost of the German
Protestant Ministries in the Holy Land and the headquarters of the Bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. But Bach’s ‘Cello
Suites played on the alto saxophone? The saxophone family of instruments was only invented
by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s! This was going to
be interesting! Frank Liebscher (Leipzig, Germany) was the artist who would
perform movements from Bach’s solo ‘Cello Suites for what could only be
called a “very curious” audience.
Following welcoming
words from Rev. Rainer Stuhlmann, interim Propst of the Redeemer Church,
Liebscher opened his program with the Prelude from Suite V, his playing rich in
melodic content, the occasional low notes joining to form a skeleton bass over
which the artist’s voice-play emerged effective in the saxophone’s different
registers.
We have read much
about J.S.Bach’s extraordinary skills in improvisation, of how he, for
example, improvised a complex six-part fugue for Frederic the Great, King of
Prussia or an elaborate chorale fantasia lasting almost half an hour for
Jan Adam Reincken, organist of St. Catherine’s Church in Hamburg. We also know
that Bach put improvisation skills at the centre of his teaching and
that they were part-and-parcel of his own daily music-making. It is important for today’s
musicians to reclaim the integrated, communicative art of improvisation as
a part of composition and performance. The element of improvisation was present
throughout Liebscher’s program in one way or another, from a fanfare figure
preceding his playing of Suite I to the addition of passing notes,
ornamental features and noble flourishes. It is no mean challenge to adapt
music whose technique is natural on the ‘cello to a wind instrument.
Liebscher’s easeful, brilliant technique figured considerably throughout the
performance, with much jaunty dexterity of arpeggios and runs, some so flexed
and so breathless as to skip by before the ear had time to process them.
Liebscher’s background is, after all, in jazz. I must admit that I found the
artist’s wistful, more strictly-measured playing of the two Bourrées from Suite
III calming, touching and most satisfying.
As to the mysterious
and mystic inner workings of Bach’s mind, these found expression in Liebscher’s
poignant playing of the Preludes from Suites V and of II and in the Sarabande from Suite
V, the latter’s tragic course set with bijou ornaments and punctuated with
small, pensive pauses, its climax tender rather than triumphant. There might
have been a few raised eyebrows from any members of the authentic early music
movement in the audience (had they been there); happily, Liebscher’s playing of
Bach was, however, clear of vibrato, save for his engaging in it to ornament
final notes with a touch of poesie. What was also most pleasing was the artist’s
familiarity with church acoustics, as he took into account the building’s play
of echoes. For his encore, the artist played his own skilful arrangement of J.S.Bach's fantasia on the chorale "Wachet auf" (Awake, the voice is calling us). The concert was a unique, interesting and inspiring event.
Dr. Frank Liebscher
brings a rich academic- and artistic background to his performance.
Composer, arranger, band leader and sideman in a wide range of genres, his
teaching experience covers the school-, music school- and university levels; he
lectures and holds workshops internationally. With a PhD in music education (his dissertation was titled
“Mental Practice - A Creative Approach to Jazz Improvisation”) Frank Liebscher's current
interdisciplinary research focuses on music- and practice methodology,
deliberate practice and performance studies.
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