Sharing his love of Bach at the Festival of Chichester

SussexWorld

Saturday, June 28, 1pm  Event M21: THE BACH CELLO  SUITES: REFLECTION, CATHARSIS,  JUBILATION, St Paul's Church,  Churchside, Chichester, PO19 6FT  Pavlos Carvalho performs and  shares thoughts on two of the most  contrasting movements from the  Bach solo cello suites. The moving,  meandering and reflective 2nd suite  in D minor, cathartic and spiritual, is  followed by the bold, adventurous,  dancing and jigging C major suite.  Music to uplift the soul and have you  dancing in your seats. Tickets £12,  under-19 £5, under-7 free.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor with Sussex Newspapers and also

00:06chairman of the Festival of Chichester and, well, one of the most important, one of our

00:10favourite people at the Festival of Chichester every year, Pavlos Cavalier. You come along

00:15and do several concerts, doing three this year, you're kicking off, well, with your favourite,

00:21your absolute favourite, that's right to say, isn't it? Bach means everything to you, doesn't

00:25it? And you were playing the Bach Cello Suites under the title Reflection, Catharsis and

00:30Jubilation on Saturday, June the 28th at 1pm in St Paul's Church. Now, we've spoken a lot

00:37about Bach over the years, why is he so central to your musical thinking?

00:44It's the first recollection I have of music, the first sound I can remember is Bach and

00:52I've carried it with me in different ways all through my life through today. But I think

00:57that's very important. From the very first moment, I'm conscious of the sound of music.

01:01I remember my father, who was a cellist, playing the prelude of this G major, which, you know,

01:09I've heard since, I can remember, as I say, and still play. I just did a recital the other

01:14day that wasn't Bach, but we included this because one can never get tired of it. Every time,

01:20every time you come to that, it's like drinking a fresh glass of water, you know, you always

01:25need it, and it always feels necessary.

01:28And I feel a bit like that.

01:29It means different things to you at different points in your life, doesn't it? It changes

01:33with you.

01:34Absolutely.

01:34Doesn't it?

01:36It does. I remember we spoke, you know, when you're a young boy, and you're not so conscious

01:43of, you know, harmony and theory and all of this, you're just learning it because it's

01:50just beautiful, simple, simple sounding music. And ultimately, the funny thing is, throughout

01:56all the years, when you then become more conscious of the harmony, and you see the genius of how

02:00he ties things together, and this is the language of Bach, is that you spend all this time with

02:04it, analysing and maybe overthinking and going around, just so that you can find the simplicity

02:09again. So it's like you go full circle. As a young child, you start learning it simply

02:15like with a nice fairy tale, you know, a layered fairy tale, because it's a good story or it

02:19sounds beautiful. Then you analyse it, and you analyse it to death, so that you can find

02:25your way back to the simplicity of it, where you don't have to think about it, and it just

02:29comes naturally. And this is a constant journey and a constant search.

02:33Wow. Well, that kind of is what I was going to ask you about, the title for the concert,

02:37so that reflection of selfless and jubilation, you've just said it all, I think, haven't you

02:42really?

02:43Yeah. Yeah, I mean, even that title you can see on different levels. I mean, you see in

02:48every Bach suite, you have these three feelings. There's always, whether it's the opening G

02:55major suite or the second more introspective and fifth introspective as D minor, C minor

03:01suites, or the last jubilant D major suite. All of them have these characters, there are

03:08movements where it feels really sort of still and reflective. And as a result, of course,

03:15it's very, very cathartic, this calmness. And then there are these dance movements that

03:20fills, especially the last suite, like bells ringing and orchestras playing. So you have

03:26this sense of jubilation as well. And it's something, these three characters, you find in all the

03:30Bach suites from the first to the sixth. It's also, you know, in one's wider context of life,

03:38where you feel these things, this sort of jubilation at the end of a concert or in a particular part of

03:43your life that's going well. I remember we spoke about this during the lockdown. And this was a

03:49moment where it wasn't necessarily the feeling jubilation, but a moment where all of us, you know,

03:55locked away in our houses had the time to reflect and to get through things. And this Bach at this

04:02time, where there was no way of playing complete music with big groups, it's the repertoire that we

04:08have, which is complete. You play all, you know, you're playing lots of instruments on one. And so

04:13it felt very, it gives you time to reflect with the music and to feel cathartic because you have all

04:20this time with it and do nothing else. So, you know, it's just this idea of reflection, catharticism.

04:27And just a word about the festival. The fact is that you are so loyal to us in Chichester,

04:31which we love. You keep coming back, which is great. What does the festival mean to you?

04:37It's home. The festival is home of all the festivals I play. Even, look, even the, as we were

04:43speaking earlier, I was saying we've just come out the end of this Greek music festival that I'm,

04:49I'm one of the founders, founders of the Chichester festival is, is actually, it feels even more home

04:55because this is, this is the one I've been going to for, for longest, always welcomed, whatever

05:02programs we, we do. And everyone always looks after us so well. People always turn up to our concerts.

05:10It's, it's just, it just, like I say, I think there's no other way to put it that it just feels

05:16like home, you know, and also when having organized another festival myself, when I come to the Chichester

05:23festival and all I have to do is turn up with my cello and sit down and play and then walk away

05:28feeling absolutely amazing. I always, I cannot walk away without having in the back of my mind,

05:34people like you Phil and everyone organizing it where I know you do one concert, you can't even

05:39enjoy that. You have to think about the next one, you're organizing the next one. And it's only a

05:42month after where you can reflect on the magnificence of what you've done. So I really, I love going

05:48there because I know the effort that everyone puts into organizing it so that we can just turn up,

05:52sit down, play and leave. You know, it's, it's very, it's a breath of fresh air for me every year.

05:58Lovely words to hear. Long may that continue. Your home will always be enjoyed.

06:02Thank you all so much. And good luck with those three concerts you're doing for us.

06:06Thank you so much. Good luck with the rest of the festival.

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