Dialogue Meeting 2013

Bach Network UK’s Sixth J. S. Bach Dialogue Meeting took place in Warsaw, 3–7 July 2013
in association with the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, and
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute Warsaw.

Full details of the programme, venue, accommodation, transport, general notices and photographs can be read Warsaw Dialogue Meeting website.

The meeting began with the Inauguration, Welcome, Concert and Reception at the University of on Wednesday 3 July. On Thursday 4 July we met again at the University of Warsaw, Senate Hall for an Introductory paper on the theme of the meeting ‘Bach Looking East’, given by Szymon Paczkowski (University of Warsaw) on Bach and Poland in the 18th century. Dialogue Session I also with the theme ‘Bach Looking East’ was introduced by Christoph Wolff (Harvard University), Michael Maul (Bach-Archiv Leipzig), Christine Blanken (Bach-Archiv Leipzig) and Manuel Bärwald (Bach-Archiv Leipzig). After lunch Dialogue Session II addressed the question of Bach’s Numbers: Sources, Exegesis, Illustration, with Ruth Tatlow (Musik- och teaterbibliotek, Statens musikverk, Stockholm) and moderator Michael Marissen (Swarthmore College, USA) Moderator. Dialogue Session III took up the theme of “Bach the Sublime”: Australasian Reception of the St. Matthew Passion, 1875–1950, led by Janice B. Stockigt (The University of Melbourne), Samantha Owens (The University of Queensland), Jula Szuster (The University of Adelaide) and Alan Maddox (The University of Sydney)
In the evening we made our way to The Royal Castle, Great Assembly Hall, where we were treated to a celebrity recital with Nelson Goerner (Piano) in a programme of J.S. Bach and F. Chopin

On Friday 5 July we reconvened at the University of Warsaw, Senate Hall for
Dialogue Session IV to think about Analytical issues in Bach’s vocal music, with three specific papers woven together by discussion and questions: Michael Marissen (Swarthmore College, USA) moderator; Stephen A. Crist (Emory University) A compositional testing ground: Arias in J.S. Bach’s Weimar church cantatas; Markus Rathey (Yale University) The Function of Compositional Revisions in the Christmas Oratorio; Daniel R. Melamed (Indiana University) Did J.S. Bach’s Listeners Analyze?
After lunch was the first session of Burning Issues, with the focus on Bach in the 20th and 21st centuries, with Bettina Varwig (King’s College London) speaking on Bach in the Twenty–First Century
and Yulia Kreinin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) on Choosing an influence, or the Rorschach test: Images of Bach as reflected in 20th century compositions. This was followed by Dialogue Session V entitled Between Deconstructing and Constructing. Paweł Szymański and Bach, with Katarzyna Naliwajek–Mazurek (University of Warsaw), pianist Maciej Grzybowski with a short recital of music by Paweł Szymański, followed by an interview and question time with Paweł Szymański (composer).
In the evening we met at the University of Warsaw, Auditorium Maximum for our second celebrity concert, Collegium 1704 Prague, conducted by Vaclav Luks, performing;
Johann Sebastian Bach Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 4
Johann Sebastian Bach Ich habe genug BWV 56
Johann Sebastian Bach Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz BWV 138
Jan Dismas Zelenka Lamentatio I
Jan Dismas Zelenka Miserere ZWV 57

On Saturday morning we met for what has become one of the most exciting elements of our Dialogue meetings, the Young Scholars’ Forum. Masterfully shepherded by Daniel B Melamed six research students presented their theses: Vasiliki Papadopoulou (University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna) Performance history of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin on the basis of performance editions: Anna Salamon (Jagellonian University, Kraków) Concertos of Johann Ernst of Saxe–Weimar and their reflection in J.S. Bach’s arrangements; Susan McCormick (Queens University, Belfast) The Chorales of Johann Christian Kittel; Nadya Markovska (Southampton University) Variety as an aesthetic norm in early–eighteenth century music; Chiara Bertoglio (Università di Torino) Instructive Editions of Bach’s WTK and their reception in 19th-century Italy; and Olga Gero (Universität Leipzig) The unknown source of the text in Fallax mundus by Dietrich Buxtehude
Dialogue Session VI ­took the theme of Bach and Organology, with presentations by
Alina Mądry (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), Patryk Frankowski (State Museum of Instruments, Poznań) and Mike Diprose (Basel). The final session revisited the Bach Looking East theme, with four burning issues papers: Tatiana Shabalina (St. Petersburg, Rimsky–Korsakov Conservatory) Discoveries in St Petersburg: New Perspectives on Bach and Poland; Raymond Erickson (City University of New York) Jews in Bach’s World; Barbara Reul (University of Regina) J. S. Bach and J. F. Fasch in comparison; Janice Stockigt (University of Melbourne) The visit of members of the Dresden Hofkapelle to Bautzen: May 1733.
The Gala Dinner was held at the Hotel Sofitel Victoria to mark the end of the meeting.
For those able to stay an extra day there was a trip to the Fryderyk Chopin Museum, trip to Żelazowa Wola (Chopin’s birthplace).