Philadelphia Museum of Art presents The Bach Cello Suites Project

Discovering movements

Many musicians get to know these Bach suites early on and return to them throughout their lives, says Bridge, a well-known Philadelphia choreographer and performer, over Zoom. Through this ongoing project—the brainchild of composer-musician Peter Price, Tristan’s dad—the duo plans to revisit and reconsider. Bridge wonders what the work will look like when Tristan is, say, age 30. But through structured improvisation, she pursues discovery in this first round, too. “It’s important to me to be familiar with the score,” she said. “Then, once I’m grounded in that architecture, I’m free to move how I want within that. The actual movements that I’m doing are coming up in real-time, and for me, that’s the beauty of bringing an improvisational approach to the Bach. The music is so rich—and Tristan doesn’t play it the same every time.”

In order to give musical landmarks to Bridge, Tristan keeps the phrases and sections methodical, he commented. Yet he also tries to do different variations, especially when elements repeat. “There’s so much freedom in this piece because Bach didn’t write any fingerings or bowings in the original. ... There are a lot of different interpretations out there, and I’m trying to form my own,“ he said.

Alongside the portraits, The Artist’s Mother offers labels that detail who the mothers were. The museum’s Linnea West sees this as a way of giving the mothers agency rather than treating them as passive subjects. Bridge acknowledges that her and her son’s identities will inform how audiences view their performance. But they, like Whistler, are concentrating on formal aspects. “We’re looking at this as a piece of music that we’re engaging with. We’re not making central our relationship—because we know that we don’t have to,” Bridge said. “Our relationship is absolutely on display. It’s 100% part of the work for the spectator.”