Salt for Johann Sebastian Bach

Emilio Moreno, violinist and historical violin and viola teacher in the Department of Early Music of the ESMUC, Consuelo Bautista

“My father, a musician, died when I was eight years old and left me the love of Bach… Now I am 66, I am in charge of the Royal Chamber and the Spanish Concert and soloist of the 18th century Amsterdam Orchestra and Bach Collegium Japan, in Tokyo… ”.

What got you in Bach?

“It seems to me that it was Cioran who said that the essence of God is understood from Bach, an enlightened one, a visionary.

He defined himself as a craftsman.

Like Michelangelo, who said when they spoke to him of the perfection of his sculpture: 'I have simply removed the unnecessary from the stone'.

It is the modesty that I like about Bach… He was a radically human and spiritual composer, he liked to eat and drink.

A normal neighbor who wants to go unnoticed.

It doesn't seem strange or lunar to us.

Look what happened to me: I was going with my wife and daughter to Leipzig, my first visit to Bach's grave.

An intensely cold ship, breath was frozen, we carried some flowers.

Someone was rehearsing on the organ.

Three or four notes to warm up the keys ... Back in Barcelona I heard an organ piece on the radio that was precisely that!

It was as if Bach said to me: 'Study me more thoroughly, here are the materials'.

Shortly before, I had had a dream: I was dining with many people, and Bach was in the background, I was waiting for him to speak.

Suddenly he looks at me and I get scared, what is a miserable ant going to say to me, and this is what he said to me: 'Mr. Moreno, can you pass me the salt, please?

In reality his music is that human.

“You expect me to solve all the arcana and simply ask you for the salt.

I remember his face, very serious, his big and calm black eyes, his voice asking me to pass the salt… It seemed to me that it was another message: he is sublime, but he is also human, he takes salt when he eats ”.

You live, he says, in "the least Bachiano country in the world."

“If I were German or had been raised in a Lutheran society, I would understand this fascination.

They can better understand Bach because of the connection between the composer's Lutheran spirituality and the liturgy, and it has always surprised me that I, a Latin Mediterranean, have this attraction in such a Catholic country… ”.

What would the knowledge of Bach have contributed to the way of being of this country?

“Perhaps it would have had a soothing effect: let the music appease the beasts! Let us know the universe better… But the Nazis listened to it, and even so they were not moved by sending hundreds of thousands to the concentration camps.

Naturally, it is a comfort to listen to music when you are uncertain or restless, but music will not take away the pain ”.

What music by Bach would help us feel that all of this will also pass?

"That of Bach or that of any good composer, as long as you listen to it in silence."

A young student thanked you on Twitter for listening to you playing Bach from home.

That calmed her down and allowed her to focus to study.

You explained online that you did it to rehearse.

“I try to be careful, I don't want to bother with my rehearsals.

But this reaction gave me immense joy ”.

In confinement he has delved into the Bach of his dreams and listened to the birds in the park.

“57 species expressing hunger, aggressiveness or desire!

These precious songs are usually voices of alarm ”.