No 106 Reflections

The Tim Kliphuis Trio are one of the world’s top string groups, combining jaw-dropping virtuosity and mesmerizing improvisations with a beautifully varied repertoire sourced from classical, gypsy jazz and North-European folk music. Award-winning violinist Tim Kliphuis, guitarist Nigel Clark and bassist Roy Percy, team up with baroque superstar Shunske Sato to celebrate Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos through a current-day lens, and to perform his famous Chaconne in a brand new version for 2 violins. Commissioned to develop a Bach programme by the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in 2018, the Trio decided on the Brandenburg Concertos as the best match for their rhythm music approach. Bach based most of his movements on dance forms from older times, such as the French Minuet and the Polacca. The ternary and binary dance forms are also the basis for most jazz and folk, in which the Trio specialize. From every original Brandenburg Concerto, Kliphuis took elements to include in this new, 30-minute version. The famous Allegro from the 3rd Concerto is maybe most recognizable, as is the Adagio from the 1st Concerto, now for two violins. But elsewhere, a harpsichord motif from the 5th Concerto is re-worked into a guitar ballad and a set of melodies from mixed movements surface in the Finale, which then meet Aaron Copland and Johann Pachelbel to create a rousing end to the concert. Kliphuis re-worked Bach’s iconic Chaconne in the pandemic year 2020, when he was offered to record a solo improvisation in an empty church. Using the original form of Minor-major-minor in roughly the same ratio, he has composed new notes in the style of Bach, sometimes while the original melody line is played as well. The two violins duel it out with Sato bringing more of the original lines, and Kliphuis often augmenting these with improvised phrases and even a new pizzicato technique. The piece takes on new colours and atmospheres, but retains its original Threnody-type character.