Bach Masterclass: Allemande from Suite No. 1 - Musings with Inbal Segev

[@samueljohn932]

I can't tell you how long I've wanted some amazing professional musicians to do videos like this! I love watching and learning from master classes but your videos are much preferred!! Thanks so much, it is much appreciated!

[@pamgeddes5346]

I like the way your voice leads into the playing, your voice translates into the note passages you are playing on your cello. This is really neat to listen to. You and your cello are one! For us, masterclasses are at our fingertips, your masterclasses draw us in to the music, the musical terms, and much more section by section, bar by bar.

[@Inbalsegevcello]

Thank you! 😃

[@charlesfritter9686]

Hello Inbal, I am so very glad I found your masterclasses on the Bach cello suites. I am addicted to them already as they are a great help with phrasing. I am currently learning cello suite 1 on octave mandolin where the notes of course are plucked instead of bowed, and in the key of D major, but it does not hold me back that you are playing in G major. I can simply drop down one string and play in G when needed. My instrument has excellent sustain that stands in place of long bows. Boy am I having fun. Bach is so awesome!

[@darylnoble5711]

I began cello lessons at age 67 and have played for 18 months,having been a jazz drummer in my youth with 3 years of piano lessons in my 30s. It is exciting to work on Bach’s cello pieces and your playing is glorious!

[@spencerdoidge8793]

I got a 7-string classical guitar to play Brazilian chôro music. Now I'm using it to play cello music. I check in here each time I take on another Bach piece to see if there's a master class for it. Now I just learned that you're doing Schumann! I never thought about playing Schumann! Wow! You're rocking my world, lady! I always wanted to play these classical pieces. Your master classes add a lot of food for thought.

[@davidnefesh]

Classical guitar student here. I just started studying this Allemande and your reflections here on dynamics are very useful. Shalom Uvracha from Michigan! Thank you, Inbal.

[@Inbalsegevcello]

Great to hear! Thanks for writing and Shabbat shalom

[@FrancesRAllen]

Thank you! I discovered this at the start of our two-week half term, used it to work on the allemande, played it today to my teacher, who was clearly taken aback at my improvement! I have learnt so much about the technicalities of phrasing from this. More videos like this please!

[@annhumphries7805]

I’m a poet. I follow this incredible master cellist, b/c I like how she analyzes and coaches each momement and movement-tension her, extend this ala MONDE, use your imagination here. I just love this!

[@thetruthgodcountry5052]

As you know I have been working on this piece for at least a couple of months, and have had some concerns regarding the timing and speed of this composition. Although I am playing it on a guitar in the key of D, and not a cello in the key of G, this video will still be a Priceless tool in helping to fine-tune my approach towards the piece. Thank you so much for putting out informative and insightful videos like this!

[@philippedavid7523]

Merci pour vos précieux conseils, pour les références citées. ...et pour votre belle musicalité

[@loganbmusic97]

Phenomenal advice. Thank you for sharing

[@roseinbloom8875]

Thank you for your guidance! I am revisiting this one after a long time and it is refreshimg to have your help and perspective!

[@tessal435]

Thank you!! I’m working on this at the moment

[@rockrug3408]

As a viola player learning the allemande, I SO appreciate this!

[@dibaldgyfm9933]

The analysis of upper and lower notes in the beginning is spot on. I think this piece is Bach experimenting with *one* voice which can suggest more lines by using low and high. The experiment came out beautifully! And your (Inbal's) cello and your playing makes it a pleasure in more than one way. ❤ Probably JS wanted the first movement to be chord-improvisation with some runs and climax near the end, the second movement to be stepwise motion, third (courante) is more like a peasant-dance heavy swirling, then the beautiful slow Sarabande, heighth of heartfelt love for music, Menuets I - II contrasting minor and the speedy last Gigue rounding off with bravura; this way he explored the instruments possibilities in every possible way and his students and musicians at the court had something to work with.

[@chrisblades2768]

Thank you so much for this wonderful masterclass. I am learning this on the guitar (sorry) transposed to D major, and your insights are a big help in sorting out this quite complex Allemande.

[@oldcremona]

I'm working on this tune on the...banjo. It's great to get tips from the source. Makes me feel like the banjo is capable of real...music.

[@ianbell9041]

I love your hair. Thanks for sharing your insight about this piece.

[@ulyssesleal4958]

Belíssima interpretação! Parabéns!

[@johncuscaden2021]

Very helpful!

[@DavidWilliamRose]

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing your process, in addition to the marvelous playing.

[@daisyjefferson7416]

Inbal, I've learned so much from your musings on suite 1, especially how to interpret Anna Magdalena bowings. I'm now working on the Courante, I could sure use your help. Could I urge you to continue the suite 1 series and do a Courante musing? Of course you know I'll end up asking for the Sarabande as well and the Minuets and the Gigue. One hurtle at a time.

[@JacksonLaBaugh]

I love these videos! Could you do one on his D Minor Prelude?

[@jaroslavkulhan3552]

Wonderful, great inspiration!

[@abdessadeqourkiya9052]

Your channel is going places!

[@irebustini]

Phenomenal material! I believe that this Allemande isn't a simple piece, as it calls for so many surprising trills and double stops and chords. The G Major and D Major character switches are surprising and often catch me off guard. I tend to separate the measure 13 in 3 slurred notes, and I am practicing more the bigger slur with all the 14 notes (I easily run out of bow). I am struggling a bit with the pulse and I am fixing it by slowing down the tempo and being really strict (metronome) with it. It will all come more naturally together, as i continue practicing, and your video is so helpful! Thank you so much for so generously sharing this. Hopefully I will have the privilege to attend to one of your live concerts very soon. Until then, thank you and all the very best wishes! 🙏🏽🎶❤️👏

[@jonasmafragoncalves8432]

Bravo !

[@mangelicacezario1]

Great!

[@musictasking]

Awesome!

[@edgargil8318]

Your cello has a beautiful sound, I wonder what type of strings you use or prefer. Thanks a lot for your generosity and great videos. I am a beginner student at this point but I am looking forward to play one day like you do.

[@magnocello2019]

thank you!

[@passionyu1309]

wow

[@SoulCelli]

thank you so much~^^

[@naderat]

Thanks, I'm having hard time playing the beginning of bar 24 where you bar only A and E and then playing E and open A. Can you elaborate how you do it?

[@dsayub]

Sos la mejor y las más hermosa.

[@camilacd9634]

ONE, TWO, TREE, AND PERFECT

[@herbertwells8757]

Are we to believe she's actually reading these blotches? Would a legible score be somehow inauthentic?

[@JoseGregorioHernandezDelgado]

goddess

[@albertnortononymous9020]

So why do you use so much rubato and “sitting on notes”? Wasn’t this music to be danced to? Why should it not have a more stable tempo, especially in context of the dance?

[@Inbalsegevcello]

This music was not to be danced to. It is inspired, and in the form of a dance but there is a difference. When one, solo instrument plays, one of the advantages is being able to play freely, as opposed to when we play in orchestra.

[@TirriRino]

you are cute :D

[@JoachimVHW]

That must have been such a bummer for Bach, people calling his music "respectable"

[@Inbalsegevcello]

Joachim Vanhauwaert hi and thanks for watching. It is the Allemande dance, not Bach’s music, that was called respectable. I agree he would probably not appreciate his music being called that😀

[@herbertwells8757]

@@Inbalsegevcello Bach's livelihood and modest contemporary reputation pretty much depended on his being considered respectable. His employers required functional music, not recondite art. Moreover, Bach and his music were at heart deeply conservative. Bach was not an innovator; he was a consolidator. He summed an era; he did not inaugurate one.

[@Inbalsegevcello]

@@herbertwells8757 One ( including me) forgets that “respectable” was not always an insult as regards art. I would say he was an innovator in building and improving organs, do you agree? but as you wrote, in his music he reached a pinnacle and summed an era and was called old fashioned already by his sons.

[@herbertwells8757]

@@Inbalsegevcello I know approximately nothing about Bach's organ building--or anyone else's, for that matter--so I'll have to take your word as far as that goes, but I quite agree with everything else you said. (The Romantic movement in art inculcated in us some attitudes that would have seemed distinctly odd to preceding centuries.) To be fair, however, C.P. E. Bach did champion his father's work, which probably got the ball rolling. Bach's international reputation reached a pinnacle long after his music had. My subjective tentative impression is that the former continued to grow all the way to the 1960's, whereupon it either plateaued or maybe even just slightly declined.

[@MrAkifusion]

Lame.

[@afonsodeportugal]

Ah, yes, the guy with no videos leaving his very constructive commentary!

[@nedgrant7718]

Brilliant!