Nigel Kennedy Plays Bach BBC Proms

APPLAUSE Good evening, everybody, a very

warm welcome. Tonight at the props, two musical giants go head to head,

both sensational violinists, both of them mavericks. One was famed

for his addiction for coffee, his preponderous for alcohol, arrested

for fighting in the street with a bassoonist. The other has a spikey

haircut and uncompromising opinions, one composer, one performer. Ladies

and gentlemen, playing the work of Wow. Well, good evening, ladies and

gentlemen. Good evening. That's more like it. Listen. It's not late,

but we're just letting a few more people get in. Listen. It's

wonderful to see all of these cats here in this amazing auditorium.

It's a bit of a lonely job, this one, playing Bach in a solitary

manner, so I've got the ghosts of a few musicians around me just to,

like, make a little placebo effect. So anyway, I'm going to start with

this Preludium, which just for anyone who might not have heard it

before - I know all of you cats is, like, the most knowledgeable in the

world! But, you know, one or two might not have heard this most

amazing thing about it - is this line of notes with the complete

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Thank you, by the way. LAUGHTER

Um, so this next sonata in its entirety is a killer concentration

- let's put it that way, and just as much for you as it is for me, so

good luck, people. LAUGHTER

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Thank you very much indeed. Man, I need a beer!

LAUGHTER Been off the alcohol at least a

week for this. But I think, you know, I've got a theory about Bach

which many other people have had before, which is that Bach can

swing, you know - I mean, you know, these D minor artists are pretty

serious, and we have just got through that together, and not

really trying to swing in that one, but it's nice - some people put a

bit of a beat in there, and these instruments are not just for show.

There's going to be some noise coming out of these things, and I'd

like to introduce to you, like, some amazing musicians who are

going to help do a little bit of something to Bach, right?

LAUGHTER So this guitar - this beautiful

Maccaferri, I think should be played by a great friend of mine

from Frankfurt, the beautiful country of Germany, one of my

favourite countries, a fantastic place - a shame about the football,

but English is even worse, yeah. Rolf Bassald, please.

That's it. Pretty good applause considering

you've played nothing yet. LAUGHTER

You better be good, mate. Don't be nervous.

And on contrabass, someone suitable for the size of the ininstrument

and a fantastic musician, from Palestine stroke Israel, a

fantastic player, Yaron Stavi. And then lovely to see you, mate.

You are big enough for that instrument, man.

LAUGHTER You know, it's fantastic having

someone in the dressing room who can actually eat the rider! Anyway,

so last but not least one of the social experiments in my band -

LAUGHTER As a young kid, when he was going

to kindergarten or the equivalent of such in Poland, he started

beating the other kids physically, and the authorities, which had some

say in people's lives in those days, kind of said, "Listen -" to his

mother, this is - they said to the mother, Mrs Dziedzic, please can

you buy your kid some drums so he can hit those and not the children?

Right? And this has been an amazing success, so I would like to

introduce to you Krzysztof "Still Out of Prison2 Dziedzic -- prison"

Hey has been rationed to one drum, so I hope this does not lead to a

fight in a phone box later, but, like, Krzysztof, how are you

feeling? Great, thank you. Thank God for that. So anyway - yeah,

let's keep him happy, I mean, whatever it takes, like. So we're

going to play a song called Das Pendel, which is German for The

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Pendulum because it's based on Bach, Thank you very much indeed, ladies

and gentlemen. Rolf Bassald, guitar. APPLAUSE

Any Polish people in the audience? APPLAUSE

OK. Well, I want to say something to Rolf - masz piekne wlosy. It

means he's got lovely hair! He washed it for you guys, you know?

Yaron Stavi on contrabass. (Speaking in Polish)

APPLAUSE And, of course, Krzysztof "Still

Out of Prison" Dziedzic - so man, I'd like to move into another

dimension, if that's all right, so, like, same time of merits to the

composer we're going to play next, a fantastic harmonic master, a

phenomenal melodist and some rhythm in it as well. This guy's called

Fats Waller, and we'd like to do one called How Can You Face Me Now?,

which basically goes like this - # How can you face me

# After what I've gone through # All on account of you

# How can you face me now? # That's why I'm not going to do the

melody or, like, singing it, OK? LAUGHTER

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# Yes # Yes! #

One more for the road? AUDIENCE: Yeah!

Sorry? Two more? No, that's too much, man. We don't know no more

than this, and I've got through the whole night without swearing, and

that's, like, taking some! This is a moor well-known song by the same

composer. He went out and bought some flowers one time to try and

make his girlfriend sweet. This one's called Honeysuckle Rose.

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Yeah! Yeah, try the intro out, man.

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That would be pretty cool. One, A rather unexpected double bill,

but then what would you expect of Kennedy but the unexpected Fats

Waller paired with the music of JS Bach? Well, this is our last

broadcast on BBC Four this season, but wrapping up the whole she bang