Masaaki Suzuki: Polyphony

“Polyphony is not only the horizontal flow of melodies,” the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Masaaki Suzuki explains to Apple Music Classical, “but also the profoundness created by the vertical strata, like bricks and stones laid one on top of another in historic European buildings. This creates its three-dimensional beauty. “The melody in any music, even if only one voice, is often very beautiful,” he continues; “but when another voice is added to this musical texture, or when a second voice joins with the same melody, as if in pursuit of the first, it makes my heart race in excitement.” No wonder Suzuki has spent his life at the heart of Baroque and early music, much of it built using polyphonic techniques. As the conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan, he has recorded a complete cycle of Bach’s Cantatas, themselves supreme examples of polyphony at its technical and artistic pinnacle. Suzuki has, of course, placed Bach right at the heart of this playlist, but looks back, too, to polyphony’s medieval beginnings, as well as its use in 20th-century jazz—and much in between, including Brahms’ German Requiem and Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony. “In each of these selections are the intricate polyphonic sounds that I hope you discover and enjoy,” adds Suzuki. “Because of its complexity, listening to this music has the effect of washing away the trivial things surrounding us in this world, and invites us into the architectural grandeur of ‘polyphony’.”