Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004, Alex Kwok

"The Unearthly Love" piano recital. Live at Eaton Club, Musica del Cuore 2023

A snippet of my program notes...

An earthly love will expire itself. It is when intimate contact and attachment no longer empower a relationship. Life is a cycle, where there are the deceased, there are the rebirth. When love becomes only a spiritual alignment, it transcends all over the emotional shackles. One would become fearless, determined, and calm. Bach wrote this chaconne to his deceased wife. You can tell that there aren’t even a place of yearning and lamenting. The music is sacred, monumental, and liturgical. Emotional-wise it is empty. It is an intensive ‘dance’, a grieving dance, the pace of a lengthy funeral. But why are the emotions so controlled? Imagine when one like Bach who had experienced loss of parents and 10 children, would have understood that lives are ever-changing and only loving a soul is an eternal dedication. If I were Bach, would I consider the funeral march a termination of one’s life or a rebirth to a new world? Would love to be stuck in the past or transcended to a new chapter? I will be making a choice at the very last chord of the performance…