Tatyana Ryzhkova performs Prelude from BWV 998 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). I mainly posted this one for the spectacular setting of the video, although the playing is also good, maybe a bit too Romantic but that is more a question of taste. Hopefully she posts the Fugue and Allegro too. Ryzhkova was born in 1986 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. She has a gigantic online following including 39,000 subscribers on her Youtube. Although I’ve seen some people criticize her for racking up the follows with video production and a nice smile, I suspect they are mainly just bitter of her success. However, with two solid albums behind her this would be a good time for her to stop busting out the classics and do an interesting original project or album of commissions. Something to get away from constant classics. She did have a little suite by Sevriens on her first CD and maybe her concert programmes have more, I don’t know. Nevertheless, for someone born in 1986 she has done very well for herself and is only at the beginning of her career. You can check out her CD’s and other stuff too, Tatyana Ryzhkova on Amazon.com.
A highly personal, passionate and poetic approach that takes great risks and tears me between sublime enjoyment and rebellion against Ms. Ryzhkova’s having stepped over the line that is defined by how most of us have come to view J.S Bach’s strictness of tempo. However, for my experience, Ms Ryzhkova’s performance transcends my petty prejudice. I, too, feel his music that way, but do not have the technical freedom that your have to go so far out on a limb successfully.
Make no mistake; after listening to and watching Ms. Ryzhkova’s many performances, I for one see her blatantly feminine presence and unapologetic approach to some pieces as a welcome relief and artistic plus–to say nothing of her manifest joy in the instrument, its sound, and in her unashamed willingness to expose herself completely as the works unfold. As a man and musician, as a lover of Bach, it’s easy to imagine Johann Sebastian himself smiling, wincing, then smiling again, eager to applaud and curious to meet this extraordinary musician.
J.S. Bach was perhaps the first jazz musician, certainly the all-time best. On his time he took such successfully stunning risks that even today they take the breath away. Ms. Ryzhkova knows that viscerally.
Yes, isn’t it nice to see a creative take on a piece that is otherwise played traditionally too often. Not sure I see a blatantly feminine presence, but certainly a confident and therefore unapologetic one.