In October 2020, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with artistic director Candida Thompson and violinist Simone Lamsma, performed the program Pärt über Bach, in which works by Pärt and Bach were interwoven. Maarten Corbijn and Georgios Rietveld created a new music film in their distinctive black-and-white style based on Bach’s famous double concerto BWV 1060r, giving Bach’s heavenly music an added dimension through fascinating film images. Tickets for the stream are free, and donations are appreciated.
By moving away from the standard, often static concert recordings, Amsterdam Sinfonietta aims to make classical music more appealing and accessible to a larger and younger audience with its music films and video clips. To this end, the orchestra collaborates with various artists and filmmakers. Amsterdam Sinfonietta has now produced eight music films and video clips in collaboration with filmmakers Rietveld and Corbijn, visual artist Gideon van der Stelt, and the Flemish director Hans Pannecoucke.
Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1060r, was composed around 1720 on commission from Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen for his divertissement et le plaisir. Despite the focus on “pleasure,” this concerto is a beautiful example of the graceful order that Bach maintained even when relaxing his usual rigor to create music oriented toward play and listening enjoyment. In this perfectly crafted concerto, everything is balanced and always in service to the god Bach revered above all. The version for two violins, which Amsterdam Sinfonietta chose to film, was arranged by Max Schneider in 1920 and aligns with the tradition of adaptations from Bach’s time—he himself often created them.
