{"id":15207,"date":"2020-10-03T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T22:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=15207"},"modified":"2020-10-03T15:30:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T22:30:23","slug":"video-pick-of-the-week-the-beijing-guitar-duo-plays-bachs-magnificent-chaconne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/video-pick-of-the-week-the-beijing-guitar-duo-plays-bachs-magnificent-chaconne\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Pick of the Week: The Beijing Guitar Duo Plays Bach’s Magnificent ‘Chaconne’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You never know when or why a piece will hit you in a new way, but it’s always a wonderful feeling when it happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago at GFA, I remember hearing a guitar-duo performance of Bach’s famous Chaconne <\/em>(from Partita for Violin<\/em><\/em> No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004<\/em>) for the first time, and feeling that having two guitars tackling the iconic piece\u2014long a rite of passage (or, more accurately, Sisyphean hill to climb) for serious solo players\u2014somehow diminished<\/em> the work. Most likely, I just wasn’t open to the two-guitar approach to that piece that<\/em> day, because everything else the duo played completely knocked me out and the audience loved their Chaconne<\/em> unreservedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when I recently came across this February 2020 performance video by the always-fantastic Beijing Guitar Duo<\/a>\u2014Meng Su and Yameng Wang\u2014I was, frankly, a little skeptical. After all, it has the same origins as the other version: the solo piano arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), transcribed for two guitars by Ulrich Stracke. But for some reason this Beijing version hit me differently, and it has now turned my opinion around. I can now see the power and depth of the two-guitar arrangement in a way that I could not before. I was clearly being too rigid in my evaluation of the other duo’s performance. I’ve seen the light! See what you think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recording of the Beijing Guitar Duo’s Chaconne<\/em> appeared on their 2001 album, Bach to Tan Dun<\/a>. \u2014Blair Jackson <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ferruccio Busoni published his epic piano version of the Chaconne in 1893.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You never know when or why a piece will hit you in a new way, but it’s always a wonderful feeling when it happens. A few years ago at GFA, I remember hearing a guitar-duo performance of Bach’s famous Chaconne (from Partita for Violin No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004) for the first time, and feeling that having two guitars tackling the iconic piece\u2014long a rite of passage (or, more accurately, Sisyphean hill to climb) for serious solo players\u2014somehow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-watch","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/beijiong-guitar-duo-e1601763121463.jpg?fit=960%2C682&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}