Bach to the rescue

One of the great joys of the 18th-century novella La petite maison is the way Jean-François de Bastide matches the proportions and shape of the book to the architecture of the exquisite country house at the story’s heart. Zuzana Ružicková, the outstanding Czech harpsichordist who died in 2017 while working with Wendy Holden on this touching memoir, analyses Bach, a composer she more or less made her own in the second half of the 20th century,  in very similar terms:

I have a tectonic rather than a visual memory, and as the melodies begin to build, in my mind I imagine a building… I instinctively know how it is built. I understand the architecture and where it is heading — the corridors leading to rooms; stairs leading to upper levels, and ultimately to a final melody that completes the structure perfectly.

It is a lovely description. And it is no exaggeration: her performances were always beautifully structured — the corridors, stairs, and rooms all perfectly delineated, making Ružicková a most inspiring guide.