Launch of ‘Bach’s Tonal Soundscape’

Holtham’s achievement in the Bach Tonality Project reasserts core principles of his long established performance research activity. The 4 CDs of the project complete, codify, innovate and commemorate the massive testimony of J S Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier which stands as the ten commandments of Western tonality. Like many of Holtham’s recordings the collection offers completeness compare, for the example the Etudes, Preludes, Ballades, Scherzi and so on of Chopin – yet through a prism of sustained originality which codifies in such a way as to re-examine but the content and the performance practice of this seminal repertoire. The launch of this major contribution in late March 2017 was in itself a major undertaking. Three people participated: David Tieri in the capacity of Research Assistant; Warren Bebbington gave a presentation within a presentation on the nature of Holtham’s major accomplishment and the pianist himself expostulated, demonstrated and most significantly performed about one third of the collection in a packed hall in an event lasting two hours. As in previous such occasions – the 2015 Steinway launch, the Melbourne Schubert Project and so on – Holtham innovates, recreates and blends performance genres in such a way that traditional concepts of such activities are redefined. Recital, lecture, demonstration, oral exegesis, pedagogical class are blended in such a way that the audience finds itself responsive as listener, participant, observer and student: all in the service of a more comprehensive understanding of the core work. The event isolated three key centres C, A and F sharp in order to explain and exemplify the fundamental principles underpinning the project as a whole. A new element to the project was an examination through visual analysis and through performance of the autograph of the first Book, giving special attention to aspects of the title page which further illuminated Bach’s approach to equal temperament. The size of the audience which included the University’s Vice Chancellor, the unflagging attention they brought to the event and the warmth of their protracted applause all testify to both the importance and scale of the launch event. The occasion was recorded and archived by the Conservatorium technical staff