Enjoy a new playlist on Spotify and Apple Music highlighting great Bach transcriptions:
Wednesday, August 15 at 12:10 p.m., Eleonor Bindman joins WRTI Philadelphia host Debra Lew Harder for an interview and performance of the Brandenburg Duets!
If you love the music of J.S. Bach, tune in on Wednesday, August 15 at 12:10 p.m. to listen to his Brandenburg Concertos in a way you’ve never heard before. Pianist Eleonor Bindman, praised by The New York Times for her “impressive clarity of purpose and a full grasp of the music’s spirit,” performs selections from her impressive piano 4-hand arrangement of the Brandenburg Concertos with host Debra Lew Harder. “Playing Bach’s music is deeply gratifying, and twice as joyful when the experience can be shared with a partner.” That belief led Eleonor to undertake the massive project of transcribing the Brandenburg Concertos for piano duet (4-hands.)
LIVE performance program
Eleonor and Debra will perform selections from “The Brandenburg Duets,” Eleanor’s arrangements for piano 4-hands of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos:
Donald Hunt gives ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to Eleonor Bindman & Jenny Lin’s The Brandenburg Duets recording in Pianist Magazine:
“One of Bach’s crowning achievements was the Brandenburg Concertos, a huge orchestral feat for that particular period. Now vividly transcribed by pianist Eleonor Bindman for piano duet with Jenny Lin, the Brandenburg Concertos take on a new life. … The album is sequenced not in the order of the concertos, but in a cycle that best engaged the listener as if it were a recital. Out of the 6 concertos, Concerto No. 5 is undoubtedly the highlight as it already has a built-in harpsichord solo part for Bindman and Lin to sink their teeth into. What Bindman and Lin achieve as a dual partnership in the climactic cadenza of Concerto No. 5 is breathtaking in its sheer precision and vitality. … Created well in time before the 300th anniversary of the Brandenburg Concertos, the young talents of the piano world will now dive into what could eventually be standard repertoire for piano duos.”
The Cross-Eyed Pianist, Frances Wilson, featured Eleonor Bindman on her “Meet the Artist” series. The questions led to much reflection about what being a musician truly means.
TCEP: Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?
My most recent recording, the newly transcribed set of “Brandenburg Duets” is a result of several painstaking years arranging all 6 Brandenburg Concertos by Bach for piano-4-hands. Embarking on a project of such magnitude taught me an important lesson on perseverance. I am very happy with the way the recording came out and grateful to my piano partner Jenny Lin and the Grand Piano label of Naxos Records for making the CD set a reality. The feedback has been tremendous so far as I am constantly being told by listeners that they just love how the music makes them feel and how the piano conveys the material somewhat more clearly than an orchestra in this case and brings the concertos into a new perspective. It feels great to have been able to pull this off and I can’t wait to get the arrangements published. ………
TCEP: Do you have a favorite concert venue to perform in and why? What is your most memorable concert experience?
I had an epiphany a long time ago while waiting to perform a harpsichord recital at a small venue on City Island, in the Bronx. In the middle of the usual, mild pre-concert anxiety, it occurred to me that the audience members were gathering to hear Bach at noon on a Sunday because it was important to them. They made the trip instead of taking a nap or watching TV. My nervousness and ego didn’t matter, what mattered was transmitting the music they wanted to hear in a manner worthy of the task. Since then the venues and other details became secondary to the privilege of being the medium for this singular venture.
WWFM: The Classical Network‘s David Osenberg interviewed Eleonor Bindman about The Brandenburg Duets for his “Cadenza” program, broadcast on June 28, 2018! Listen now:
Ilona Oltuski offers an in-depth feature of The Brandenburg Duets on GetClassical.org:
“A new score for the concerto, geared to the baroque polyphony, with typically four, clearly distinguishable voices, demanded some omissions of the many clusters of voices, to gain more clarity. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s ‘chamber’ sound, served as point of reference for Bindman’s newly textured hierarchy of the voices in its finalized newly achieved version, which projects clarity, while honoring the elegance of the original score. The translation of a concerto score for two pianists always bears the complexity of rivalry, of two instruments of the same sonority. It is much less of an intricate task to distinguish differing instruments. So to introduce a more variant sound production within a two-piano version, Bindman wrote differing expressive lines for both players. Particular modifications of the two- piano repertoire, like crossing hands, makes for an interesting audible vitality of blending and differentiating voices, while using the modern piano’s full range of a pianistic orchestration. In order to achieve a full and interesting sounding score, Bindman did not hesitate to lose some of the original score’s rudiments.
She also decided to modify certain sequences, based on their key settings and harmonic ranges, in order to enhance the overall listening experience. The result adds greatly to the two-piano repertoire, which thrives as a four-hand performance –no orchestra necessary.”
See the full feature on GetClassical.org
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The Brandenburg Duets is a Top New Release pick from Spotify in their “Classical New Releases: Spotify Picks” playlist!
“Eleonor Bindman’s arrangement is outstanding…Bindman and Jenny Lin really lean in to this freedom, swinging when Bach allows, and never staid or boring when things get more thoughtful or academic. … Though she may have started with purely pedagogical reasons for bringing this music to four hands and a piano keyboard… Bindman and Lin are obviously having too much fun here for it to be just that. And that makes it even more pleasurable for us to listen to.”
Duo Vivace to perform “Carnival of the Animals” at the Old Stone House next season. In a fun and creative collaboration with a local artist, Eleonor Bindman and Susan Sobolewski will present a piano duet version of C. Saint-Saens’ beloved Carnival of the Animals. Duo Vivace has been committed to music education since its formation in 1992.
As part of her weekly “Monday Morning Bach” series, Eleonor recorded live performances of the 3 movements of Bach’s Italian Concerto. Starting the mini-cycle on Monday, January 1, 2018 seemed a fitting way to celebrate the New Year with one of her signature pieces. Watch all three in a YouTube playlist below: