BACH: The Art of Life

BACH: The Art of Life (Deluxe Edition) piano solo recital by Daniil Trifonov recorded October 2021 before a live audience at the Berlin Philharmonie. The major work presented was The Art of the Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. Other shorter pieces were:

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Myra Hess)
Sonata No. 5 in A Major by Johann Christian Bach
Polonaise No. 8 in E Minor by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Rondo in C minor by Carl Philippe Emanuel Bach

Directed for TV by Andreas Morell. Sound recorded with 24-bit/96 kHz files. Audio output in PCM Stereo, 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio, and Dolby Atmos. Video recorded in 1080i High Definition. Released 2022 in a “Deluxe Edition” with two audio CDs, audio on a Blu-ray disc, and a Blu-ray video of the entire live recital by Trifonov at the Philharmonie. Grade: A+ with the 💓 designation.

Trifonov’s BACH: The Art of Life project with DG has come out in a confusing array of editions and formats with different content. It was hard for me to tell for sure from advertisements for this title whether the Blu-ray disc in fact has a HD video of Trifonov playing this music. It does.

Please note there is no DVD video of this. I think this may be the first time a classical music video has been issued by a major western publishing company in Blu-ray HD video only. This is in itself a huge milestone. For more than a decade, the western publishers gave us classical music videos that were recorded for the DVD market. They then put out (as an afterthought) Blu-ray versions of the same files that had been optimized for DVD. This infected the Blu-ray recordings with the dread disease DVDitis. (During all this time, the only real Blu-ray classical music discs came from NHK, the trailblazing Japanese publisher. But NHK was never able to find a way to market these superior products in the west.)

The title Art of Life refers to the monumental musical career of Johann Sebastian Bach and the astonishing story of his two marriages producing 20 children, all of whom received music educations and some of whom wrote music of their own that is still played today. Pianists consider The Art of the Fugue to be one of the monuments of their literature. Many fans of classical music (like me) probably consider The Art of the Fugue to be a bit of a slog to get through. Its rigors are greater than my ability to appreciate. But after reading the excellent booklet included with the Deluxe Edition, I begin to get it. It’s a big serving of musical broccoli that one should eat for one’s health. For those who clean the plate, Trifonov also serves 4 yummy deserts from 4 members of the Bach clan.

I give this the 💓 designation because it’s the first video recording of classical music I’ve encountered in maybe 10+ years where the publisher (Deutsche Grammophon) did everything right. The sound was recorded in 24-bit/96 kHz files. When I started this website in 2008, I thought that 24-bit/96 kHz would be the standard for Blu-ray classical music recordings. Wrong. Only a few classical music Blu-rays came out boasting this specification. But now DG suddenly reaches for the audio top shelf. And the audio output is available in stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos. In my 5.1 HT, I get maybe the most real piano sound ever.

The video is also fine under the direction of Andreas Morell, one of the saints of fine-art video. Someone made the decision to keep the Philharmonie as dark as the law would allow. Only a small area of attenuated light surrounds Trifono and his instrument. This was appropriate for a performance of music from an era where anything written or performed at night was done by light from a burning wick. Despite limited light, Morell and Director of Photography Thomas Kutschker managed to get beautiful images. Trifono is all business as he brings heroic concentration to the task of playing 21 separate video chapters from memory. At the end, enthusiastic applause reveals there was a packed house for what is now called a “legendary” recital.

Just for fun, I played played 2 fugue chapters picked at random and the Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring while counting video clip breaks. My sample turned out to have 1000 seconds with 25 clips. So the pace of the video is , I think, about 25 seconds per video clip. And there are quite a few clips far longer than 25 seconds. This is a pleasant pace for this music. And it is much better than the ten-second-per-clip pace that we ask for in all our classical music Blu-rays. Conclusion: no DVDitis in this recording.

This DG title fully supports the following main contention of this website: having a HD video always augments and improves on a sound recording alone of classical music. It has been discouraging over the last decade to see and hear so many Blu-rays of classical music that were actually just DVDs adorned with Blu-ray dress. Maybe this BACH: The Art of Life signals an end to our long trek through the desert in search of the promised land of great sound and sight in classical music videos. And for those who just want to listen, this Deluxe Edition also has the sound recordings on a Blu-ray disc and on CDs. And all at a fair price.

This Trifonov recording in it’s several formats has been reviewed to death and nominated for many awards. Those who think of Bach as a seamstress at a celestial sewing machine might find the Trifonov approach too “romantic.” For me, this is the most satisfying classical music HDVD to come along in many years.

Now for a few screenshots: