For the finale of the Ruhrtriennale 2015-2017, the saxophone quartet BL!NDMAN presents a special performance of the four Chorale Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Both the selection of the works and the performers make reference to Johan Simons’ three-year artistic directorship. Bach’s music has been woven through his entire tenure as artistic director: suffice it to mention the opening production of the 2015 season, Accattone, and the Mass in B-Minor during the 2016 season. Johan Simons also has a special relationship with BL!NDMAN and its music director Eric Sleichim: the ensemble is part of Cosmopolis, Johan Simons’ last musical theatre production as the Ruhrtriennale’s artistic director.

Eric Sleichim has arranged our Chorale Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bachthese nearly unknown works for saxophone quartet. It is generally assumed that Bach wrote these organ works at the age of only 15, reworking them later in life. Their perfection seems to confirm this theory. The chorale partita is a cycle of variations, with a simple succession of different “adventures” circling the same theme. However, these works demonstrate the wealth of imagination Bach displays in employing this “scanty” technique. He assigns each variation its own identity, creating the impression that each piece can stand for itself as a full composition, despite the atmosphere of uniformity. Thus, each chorale partita and all its variations show Bach’s inventiveness and his innovative perspective on the German tradition of polyphony.

The saxophone quartet BL!NDMAN lends a new outfit to this authentic style with its modern instruments. The extraordinary sound spectrum of the saxophones is reminiscent of the more severe sounds of some baroque organs. The decision to play the chorale partitas on wind instruments therefore rests upon the source of all music: on breathing.

With its idiosyncratic perspective on polyphony, BL!NDMAN merges the baroque scores with contemporary compositions, each with its own idiosyncratic ideas of polyphony. These short works are interspersed among the partitas, lending a kaleidoscopic dimension to the musical material in combination with the visual approach taken by BL!NDMAN.