Washington Bach Consort struggles onward

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

J. S. Bach, Flute Sonatas, B. Kuijken, E. Demeyere (Accent, 2000) J. S. Bach, Viola da Gamba Sonatas, J. Savall, T. Koopman (Alia Vox, 2000)

Washington's entire community of musicians was shocked and saddened when J. Reilly Lewis died from a sudden heart attack this past June. No group of musicians, however, was more deeply affected than the members of the Washington Bach Consort. Since its founding in 1977, the group has known no other leader, and it is difficult to imagine this particular ensemble managing to go on for long without him to inspire and unify it.

The first of the group's chamber music concerts this year, heard last night at First Congregational United Church of Christ, offered some hope. Executive Director Marc Eisenberg explained that a provisional plan to follow if the Consort lost its leader was put into effect. Harpsichordist Todd Fickley, who led this concert, will serve this season as acting artistic director, while the board of directors conducts a search for a replacement. Fickley certainly knows the musicians, having served as Reilly's assistant for many years. He provided sparkling, technically assured accompaniment in four instrumental sonatas, a welcome constant as the quality of his partners fluctuated. Fickley even supplied one of Reilly's most omnipresent, if occasionally vexing contributions to a Bach Consort event: the gift of gab, in long narrations before each piece. The idea for the program was Reilly's, but it was Fickley who managed to bring it to execution.

Colin St. Martin's performance of Bach's second flute sonata (E minor, BWV 1034) was what brought me out to Penn Quarter on a Friday night, with the streets clogged by a Wizards game at Verizon Center. St. Martin's playing on the Baroque traverso is a regular highlight of many concerts by the Bach Consort, Opera Lafayette, and other ensembles. Here he worked marvels with the old instrument, creating pleasing forward motion while at the same time taking time to place all those tricky high notes just right in the first movement. The fingerwork was astonishing in the fast movements, especially the devilish arpeggiated passages in the second movement (all flutists know the sections I am referring to), where the breath support was seemingly endless. Unlike the other soloists for the most part, St. Martin added graceful ornamentation to the third movement, accompanied by Fickley on the delicate lute stop of Reilly's harpsichord. The only slight misstep was Fickley's over-registration of the harpsichord in the closing movement, which worked against the flutist but did not faze him at all. It was a performance that could rival my favorite recording, by Barthold Kuijken, who was one of St. Martin's teachers.

The sonatas for viola da gamba are perhaps my favorites among Bach's instrumental sonatas. This performance of the second sonata (D major, BWV 1028) was disappointing, for its caution, for its intonation issues especially in the double-stop passages. One of the violin sonatas (E major, BWV 1016) was better, with fewer but still noticeable shortcomings of intonation in the solo part. The concluding work was the G major trio sonata (G major, BWV 1039), which brought together all three soloists, with the gamba finally providing the sustaining bass line that had been missed in the other pieces. The decision to perform it with traverso on one line and violin on the other was not felicitous. The violinist was able to hold back her sound to allow the flute to be heard for the most part, but she also tended to rush, especially in the second movement.

Motets of the Bach Family

Motets of the Bach Family, Tölzer Knabenchor, G. Schmidt-Gaden (Capriccio, 2010)

Charles T. Downey, Marking Johann Sebastian’s birthday with a tribute to the Bach family (Washington Post, March 24)

Johann Sebastian Bach belonged to a large family of musicians spanning two centuries. With a concert of motets by five composers named Bach, the Washington Bach Consort honored its namesake’s birthday Sunday afternoon at the National Presbyterian Church. This program strayed from the tried-and-true audience favorites the ensemble tends to repeat too often, so it was disappointing not to see the church more full.

The survey started with Johann Bach (1604-1673), whose “Unser Leben ist ein Schatten” was one of the more striking pieces on the program... [Continue reading]

Washington Bach Consort
Motets by the Bach family
National Presbyterian Church

Art of the Fugue

Charles T. Downey, In Bach Consort’s ‘Art of the Fugue,’ dour sameness prevails
Washington Post, March 27, 2012

Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

If the fugue is the most complex way to structure music, Bach’s “Art of the Fugue” is the most enigmatic example of that complexity. It is the summa of the composer’s contrapuntal endeavors, but it was still something of a surprise to see the National Presbyterian Church filled to capacity to hear the Washington Bach Consort perform it Sunday afternoon. This austere work, an elaboration of every possible fugal trick in the bag, is not one of the composer’s most popular; indeed, this was the Bach Consort’s first performance of it.

Most scholars agree that Bach intended the piece for the harpsichord, but this performance, like many others, was arranged for an ensemble: four string instruments, with some movements performed ably by J. Reilly Lewis and Scott Dettra on two harpsichords. Andrew Fouts, the group’s new concertmaster, was exemplary on the highest part, playing with clean intonation and radiant tone. Two viols on the middle parts were too easily covered and sometimes rhythmically off-center (with one false start just before intermission), and the violone seemed not quite agile nor clear enough to suit the lowest part. [Continue reading]

J. S. Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge
Washington Bach Consort
National Presbyterian Church

PREVIOUSLY:
Artful Fugue (Ionarts, August 22, 2011)

Rising with Bach Consort

Read my review published today in the Style section of the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, The Washington Bach Consort at the National Presbyterian Church
Washington Post, May 3, 2011

Bach, Oster-Oratorium, Gabrieli Consort, P. McCreesh

What better way to celebrate Easter than with music composed for the holiday by J.S. Bach? The Washington Bach Consort offered a chance to do just that in its latest concert, at the National Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon. The performance was not without flaws, but it maintained the level of achievement established by the group’s director, J. Reilly Lewis. Taking a turn at the church’s Aeolian-Skinner organ in the second half, Lewis led the way with brilliant registration and daring pedal work on the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C, BWV 564.

A chorus of 16 voices sounded strong and well balanced in the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. Bach’s astounding patchwork of vocal lines, often a confusing tangle on the page, was rendered with clarity and precise diction. Vocal solos included the demure soprano of Rachel Carlson and the muscular, somewhat nasal tenor of Dustin Lucas. The chorus’s small size did put strain on the sopranos, whose high notes tended to go flat in the extraordinary double-chorus motet “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied.” Even with both choruses united, the high-flying “Hallelujah,” intended to rocket upward at the end of the piece, wilted in the stratosphere. [Continue reading]

Washington Bach Consort
Orchestral Suite No. 4 (D major, BWV 1069), Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (BWV 225), Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C major (BWV 564), Oster-Oratorium (BWV 249)
National Presbyterian Church

Bach Consort's Birthday Party

Orchestral Suites, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin Brandenburg Concertos, Concerto Italiano Other Concertos, Café Zimmermann

Read my review published today on the Washington Post Web site:

Charles T. Downey, Consort gives Bach birthday a familiar ring
Washington Post, March 23, 2010

The Washington Bach Consort feted the 325th birthday of its namesake on Sunday afternoon, with a concert of J.S. Bach's instrumental music at the National Presbyterian Church. The ensemble has rightfully earned a devoted local following for its groundbreaking exploration of the early history of baroque music performance. As the years have passed, however, the state of historically informed performance of Bach's music has continued to improve, while the Bach Consort appears happy in some of its concerts to revisit the same well-trodden territory.

The opening overture movement of the Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C had a relaxed tempo that allowed the music to circle and glide rather than be angled and sharp-cornered, but the players often struggled against it, a tendency to rush that pushed the ensemble out of alignment. The suite's dance movements were more rhythmically incised, making them and the sinfonia of Cantata 42 the most pleasing parts of the playing. In the wreath of 10 entwined string lines that is the third Brandenburg Concerto, the sequential exposure of solo parts was pleasant enough until one reached the third violin and second and third violas. [Continue reading]

Happy Birthday, Bach!
Washington Bach Consort (J. Reilly Lewis, director)
BWV 42 | BWV 541 | BWV 1042 | BWV 1048 | BWV 1066
National Presbyterian Church

PREVIOUSLY:

• Charles T. Downey, Lunch with Bach (Ionarts, November 4, 2009)
  
• ---, Washington Bach Consort's Cassiopeian Boast (Ionarts, January 22, 2008)
  
• Other reviews

Lunch with Bach

The best part of the Washington Bach Consort's season most years is their series of free noontime cantatas, on the first Tuesday of every month. Yesterday, I had the rare chance to attend one of those concerts, at the Church of the Epiphany downtown, in the company of the elementary school class of Master Ionarts. Few will probably believe that this trip was not planned at my instigation (really, it was not), but when the note came home about it I volunteered to help make it happen. Wisely, the children were seated in the balcony, where they could move around to the music a little and ask the occasional question without bothering serious listeners. In the few minutes before the concert, we explained the organ and its pipes, the other instruments, the voices. When it was time for the music, the kids were attentive (even through conductor J. Reilly Lewis's inevitable lectures), although the slow movements lulled some of them to sleep.

The brief program opened with organist Marvin Mills playing Bach's organ adaptation of Vivaldi's D minor concerto (BWV 596). Opening with a flutey registration, the performance had a dreamy Largo movement, a pastoral barcarolle, but there were so many adjustments to the tempo that much of the work lost its rhythmic flow. Advent came early with the cantata on offer, Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn (BWV 132), created for performance on December 22, 1715. The text by Salomo Franck, court poet of Weimar, makes references to the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, relating to John the Baptist (mostly over the heads of the younger members of the audience). Highlights of the performance included the mellow oboe of Meg Owens, beautifully scaled to the demure soprano of Kate Vetter Cain, and the mellifluous legato of mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead, paired with a lovely obbligato from violinist June Huang.

The next noontime cantata presented by the Washington Bach Consort will be Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 (December 1, 12:10 pm). All of these cantatas are free of charge and open to the public, at the Church of the Epiphany (1317 G St. NW).

Washington Bach Consort

In recent years, the Washington Bach Consort has taken to styling itself "The Nation's Premier Baroque Chorus and Orchestra," using the phrase on their Flash Web site and in the program for their Sunday afternoon concert at the Harman Center. Since that assessment is not credited to a newspaper critic or other independent source, we must assume that the words were chosen by someone within the organization. If so, it is an act of hyperbolic hubris, a Cassiopeian boast, that cries out for comment, and the lot appears to fall to me to pose the question. Is the Washington Bach Consort actually the nation's premier Baroque chorus and orchestra?

Sunday's concert was generally good, on par with most of the group's performances, but there were enough sounds that were frankly mediocre to cause a reasonable person to say nay. This performance of five concerti for violin and harpsichord was rife with the problems of intonation and accuracy that Pinchas Zukerman famously criticized as proving that period performance must be an aberration. As lead soloist, concertmaster Tim Haig played with consummate musicianship, but at the fleet tempi of many fast movements (sometimes arrived at after considerable disagreement in the opening bars, as in BWV 1043 and 1052), the other string players struggled to keep up or underplayed.

The slow movements of BWV 1041 and 1043 had a pleasing lilt but may have been just a notch too fast. The contributions of two other violin soloists, especially in the triple-violin concerto BWV 1064R, were valiant but marred more often than not by squeaky, imprecise playing. The ultra-capable harpischord soloists were Scott Dettra and the group's director, J. Reilly Lewis, who both played extremely well on BWV 1062, Bach's reworking of the concerto for two violins as a double-harpsichord tour de force. It was a mixed concert in many ways, and the polite applause offered by the group's supporters (who did not fill the Harman Center's mid-sized hall) was tellingly brief.

Cassiopeia mosaic from Palmyra, Syrian National Museum

Over its 30 years of playing the music of J. S. Bach in the Washington area, the Bach Consort has made three concert visits to Germany (1981, 1985, and 2000) and released three recordings on minor labels (a complete Bach motets set from Pro Organo now hard to find, a very good pairing of the C. P. E. and J. S. Bach Magnificats from Newport Classic in 1999, and a worthy disc billed as volume 1 of a complete set of J. S. Bach's Mass settings from Loft Recordings in 2004). A new recording of soprano cantatas with Elizabeth Futral, presumably made in the wake of their 2006 concert collaboration, is expected. In their concert history, they have given good, sometimes excellent performances of all (or nearly all) of Bach's choral masterpieces, sometimes under distinguished guest conductors, and almost always here in Washington.

The best contribution the Bach Consort makes to Washington's musical life is their monthly cantata series, during the course of which the group has recently completed performing each and every Bach cantata at least once. As reviewed here a few times, these noontime concerts, offered free of charge to the public, are a treasured moment of peace in the busy lives of many people. Still, does this worthy history justify the group's self-appellation as the leading exponent of the HIP (Baroque) movement in the United States? Does the Washington Bach Consort really merit comparison to the best European Baroque music ensembles -- say, Les Arts Florissants or Les Musiciens du Louvre (France), Concerto Italiano or Venice Baroque Orchestra (Italy), the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Germany), or the Academy of Ancient Music (U.K.)?

Other Reviews: Cecelia Porter, Bach Is Instrumental To Consort's Success (Washington Post, January 24)

On balance, while there is much to admire, it seems they are not there quite yet. By comparison with the situation in Europe, the HIP movement in the United States is generally moribund, but groups like Apollo's Fire (Cleveland) and the Boston Camerata at least travel more regularly and are known more widely outside Washington. In fact, Le Monde named the Boston Camerata as "America's foremost early music ensemble" at one point, but that group's specialty would be medieval music (although they have made recordings of Renaissance and Baroque music, too).

The next concert by the Washington Bach Consort is a noontime cantata (March 4, 12 noon) at the Church of the Epiphany, featuring Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (BWV 131) and organist Diane Heath playing the Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 531.

Bach the Dramatist and Washington Bach Consort

In spite of a compelling program, the Washington Bach Consort failed to unlock the full magic of the works of J. S. Bach at the Schlesinger Concert Hall Saturday evening. While many of the evening’s issues were the fault of a wide stage in a less-than-ideal hall for musical clarity, the opening Sinfonia (BWV 1045) started as a jumble, with different sections of the Consort beginning in varying tempi. Coordination problems continued throughout the Sinfonia, culminating in a musical collision that occurred in the chord when the orchestra stopped before a small cadenza. Half of the Consort tried to slow down; the other half pushed right through. Part of the blame must be assigned to conductor J. Reilly Lewis's unusual conducting style, with perhaps insufficient opening gestures to establish the beat and cues that seemed to be given not far enough in advance.

Next, the solo cantata for alto Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust (BWV 170) contained very beautiful material sung by Barbara Hollinshead. It was a pleasure to follow the text to hear how Bach treats words of special importance, such as “Höllensünden,” which received a descending tritone-sounding interval. Hollinshead sang well, though her voice was perpetually covered up by the hefty upper-string section of eleven violins and violas. The second aria depicting sorrow was nicely accompanied by just single lines on the organ and harpsichord, and upper strings.

Other Reviews: Grace Jean, Consort Puts Bach In a Dramatic Old Light (Washington Post, May 14)

The opening chorus of O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe (BWV 34) featured a brass section that was either ahead or behind the rest of the Consort, and an overpowering bass section of the choir that would have been well suited in an Italian opera chorus. Countertenor Roger Isaacs sang an aria about bliss with tender phrasing and a round sound. The final chorus again had an uncoordinated start.

Based on text from The Aeneid, the cantata Zerreiset, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft (BWV 205) included staging. The diction of the choral ensemble was very clear in the opening Chorus of Winds, during which bass soloist Nmon Ford as Aeolus (God of Winds) marched around the stage in costume, shoeless, with a rod. His aria about bursting into laughter at the destruction caused by the power of his winds was filled with impressive runs on the word “lachen” (laugh). Ford wryly chuckled before and after this aria to great effect, thanks to the staging of director Catherine Flye. Oboist Washington McClain offered a lovely line to the aria by Pomona (the goddess of fruit sung by Barbara Hollinshead) with his mellow early oboe. Hollinshead and the other soloists were most audible when placed at the very front of the stage. German soprano Kirsten Blase as Pallas (the goddess of wisdom) gave fluid recitatives with her light and colorful instrument. In the recitative before the final chorus, Bach wrote an upward figure on the word “frohen” to signify happiness musically; Blase characterized this very persuasively. Many flubs by the brass section dampened the strength of the final chorus.

The Washington Bach Consort's 2007-08 season is a return to the familiar: the B Minor Mass (September 26, 2007), the Brandenburg Concertos (November 11, 2007), the Christmas Oratorio (December 7, 2007), the St. Matthew Passion (May 11, 2008). A few less standard works by Bach are also planned.

Noontime Cantata - November 2006

November 7th was the latest installment of the Washington Bach Consort’s Noontime Cantata series at the Church of the Epiphany (13th & M - Metro Center) and it presented Cantata BWV 115, Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, preceded by the B Minor Prelude & Fugue, BWV 544. Diane Heath was the organist. The last time an organist truly excited me during these concerts was Scott Dettra’s performance of the Passacaglia – but even with very occasional slurs and the sense of a ‘studied’ performance, Ms. Heath's performance offered the kind of transport that I suspect many listeners, and certainly I, are looking for in these much cherished events every first Tuesday of the month.

The cantata offered a chorus that sang marvelously together – along with the always professional and dedicated orchestra. Only the soloists – taken from the chorus – were not entirely pleasing. The mezzo, who stepped in for an indisposed counter-tenor, delivered her part in achingly sincere fashion but dropped out of earshot too many times. The baritone seemed to make up in projection for what his colleague was lacking, but then he projected notes that were rather off – which was decidedly no improvement. The soprano did her job reasonably well if without distinction; ditto the tenor. If this element wasn’t excellent, it wasn’t enough to diminish the joy that these events are – and if that was as modest a performance from the soloists as you will ever get from the redoubtable Bach Consort under J. Reilly Lewis (I, for one, have only heard better, otherwise), then in a way that’s a distinction of its own kind.

The introductory talks, helpful and informative to many, still rankle me. For experimentation’s sake I should love – just once – to attend a Noontime Cantata concert where there is only music; neither talking nor applause.

The Washington Bach Consort Opens its Season With Sacred Mozart

Friday night, a sparsely filled Music Hall at Strathmore saw the Washington Bach Consort’s season open with a Mozart tribute that was a firmament of little stars set around the center of the evening, Mozart’s Requiem, this too-beautiful-to-be-all-sad moon, shining a benign and moving light on our coming to terms with the afterlife.

Harnoncourt Bernstein Schreier Marriner Celibidache

Of course Mozart’s own death mid-Requiem is the attractive story; too ironic, too dramatically sound not to exploit. This leads to the unfinished work’s claim to perpetual center stage among his sacred works. But beyond the deathbed romance á la Pushkin/Shaffer, there are other great and beautiful sacred works of various length that Mozart wrote and deserve more attention. The first half’s offering of these shorter gems was therefore particularly welcome, interesting and enjoyable.

The Epistle Sonata K.329 (with Scott Dettra’s prominent organ contribution) and Regina Coeli K.276 (featuring the chorus and very fine soloists from its midst) are two 1779 works of Mozart’s that are every bit as charming and delightful as you’d expect good Mozart to be.

Young Mozart – perhaps up to 17 – is often charming too, but more in the sense of ‘competent’, not ‘inspirational’. A Mendelssohn-like composing child-genius he was not, despite popular perception. But if not all of Mozart’s youthful work is beset with the same brilliance as his later work, Exultate Jubilate K.165, written just before his 17th birthday, more than hints at the great things that were to come. When sung as marvelously as did Christine Brandes it is a particular treat. The work, written for castrato Venanzio Rauzzini (hence the Italianate Latin in the performance) tested Ms. Brandes’ bottom range (she passed successfully, of course) and presented her plain beautiful, utterly tasteful voice from its best side. With her many appearances in the region one might be tempted to think of her as a ‘local singer’. Were that the case, she’d be the region’s pride.

Ave Verum Corpus K.618 was composed 12 years later. Although just a few minutes long, its impact is momentous. Its hushed and somber beauty is so heartbreakingly tender that for 46 bars your render all your troubles over and give yourself up to that – as Romain Rolland called it – oceanic feeling. Or, if religiously inclined, God.

A good requiem performance is of course to die for. If some deaths are bombastic, violent, secular affairs (say Verdi, Britten, Brahms), others are gentle, happier embraces of the ever-after. Take Duruflé, for example. Mozart’s work – and perhaps part of its genius – can be both: Bernstein-like brooding and brimstone-heavy or airy and light (Harnoncourt!). With the 30-plus sized, usually fleet, Historically Informed Practice–band of the Washington Bach Consort the Requiem was certainly on the gentle side – not no less moving for it. The balance with the just about 30 head strong chorus was ideal and the four soloists standing behind the orchestra were easily able to make themselves be heard. Indeed, in the very pleasing acoustic of the Strathmore hall, the choir sounded rich and full beyond their numbers.

Among the soloists it was unsurprisingly Christine Brandes who stood out. She sounds as though the simply sings - no more… nothing fancy or artificial. If anything, she can sound stern at times. Jessica Grieg’s mezzo held up nicely in comparison and thankfully the MET competition winner didn’t sound like transplanted from La Giaconda into a Requiem. Tenor Dan Snyder was less easy on the ears. A slurred, pressed sound hinted at ‘trying too hard’; the result somewhere at the opposite end of natural. The courage to sing softly, even in big spaces, could be all that is necessary to turn off that unflattering denatured quality. Curtis Streetman had to perform against every bass on every version of the Tuba Mirum any audience member has ever heard. Ideally the opening low notes roar with commanding presence, like a rock in the sea. Mr. Streetman’s voice did not quite give that – but he gave well. The choir meanwhile audibly reveled in what must be one of the most rewarding scores to sing as a member. The audience reveled likewise.

Orff‘n’Bach

WPAS invited to the Kennedy Center for a program of Bach cantatas and the choral hoopla, the inextinguishable, ever delighting Carmina Burana. Think of it as “Orff‘n’Bach” was J. Reilly Lewis’s painfully funny quip from the rostrum. The program was split between his two teams in town, the Washington Bach Consort in the first half and the Cathedral Choral Society in the second. In a football match, the Cathedral Choral Society would have won, not only because they fielded ten times more players, but because they were on home turf. The fact of the matter is that the small, authentic instrument-playing forces of the Washington Bach Consort get lost in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall’s already unflattering acoustic. Without being arranged properly, they sound wimpy.

Still, that didn’t keep them from performing the Choral Overture of the Christmas Cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens with panache. Sounds familiar, because it’s the fourth orchestral suite’s overture with throats thrown in. This short work gave Reilly Lewis the opportunity to ‘plug’ some of the singers of his choir as soloists. Soprano Rebecca Kellerman Petretta and countertenor Roger Isaacs made the most of that opportunity with very fine, unmannered performances; tenor Ole Hass and bass Jon Bruno were a bit lost and sounded overwhelmed.

Other Reviews: Grace Jean, When Johann Met Carl: Beautiful Music Together (Washington Post, March 23)

Because it’s the exciting Bach piece these days, the “new” soprano aria Alles mit Gott…, BWV 1127 (see Ionarts review of the first recording under Gardiner) was offered as the concert’s opener. The work didn’t sound any less the whimsical, beautiful ditty it is here; Elizabeth Futral, radiant, sounded a little heavier than ideal, more earthbound – especially in the ornamentation. A clearer, more focused sound might help in that repertoire. Good to hear this little gem live for the first time – it will be better yet to hear it in a more appropriately intimate space. (Perhaps it will be performed at one of the Tuesday Noontime Cantata concerts, assuming it wasn’t when I skipped the last such performance.)

J. S. Bach, Tönet Ihr Pauken..., Herreweghe/CVG

The Wedding Cantata, BWV 202, Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten offered some pitch ambiguities on Ms. Futral’s part and sounded scraggly in what is essentially a succession of soprano arias strung together with recitatives and prominent oboe participation. BWV 214, the Birthday Cantata (Tönet, ihr Pauken), is familiar stuff from another of its incarnations – the Christmas Oratorio. (It also gives the title to the latest of the outstanding Philip Herreweghe Bach discs on Harmonia Mundi.) The flutes in their long exposed passage were absolutely outstanding and stole the show from Futral, despite the latter’s glamour and effulgent beauty or the fact that here she was in better form than in the previous works. Mezzo Rosemarie van der Hooft was vocally very charming in a dry, humble way; soft when low and very good. Bass-baritone Stephen Powell was outstanding, ditto the natural trumpet player.

Carmina Burana, oft-performed as it is, was a hoot. For one, the quantity of decibels involved goes a long way, and its primitive appeal (I don’t mean that derisively at all) rarely fails to move. And some 170 singers can make an awful lot of noise. When you do Carmina, you might as well go over the top, be sufficiently grandiose… and in acting their parts out, tenor Robert Baker (Baron Jacobi, Pedrillo, ...) and Stephen Powell did just that. If I thought Baker was a great roasted swan (Cygnus ustus cantat), running about in a feather-fuming frenzy, Powell’s piss-drunk Cockaignean abbot was even more hilarious (Ego sum abbas) with laughter rippling throughout the concert hall. Ms. Futral as siqua sine socio: you can’t go ooze erotically charged deliciousness in that cappuccino-golden silk dress on stage and have us believe you the part of ‘girl without a lover’. In trutina was wonderfully, movingly done – Ms. Futral making up for what might have been missing in the Bach and the strings in complete harmony with her voice. With Carmina you know more or less what you’ll get and can choose whether to attend or not. Those who did got all that and a little bit more.

Bach for Lunch

After a short introduction by J. Reilly Lewis, the glorious sounds of Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582, opened the 17th season of the Washington Bach Consort’s Noontime Cantata Concert Series. Ionarts has written about the series before: it’s one of the little musical jewels of Washington and any attempt to extol the virtues of being able to walk into the Church of the Epiphany (1317 G St. NW) in the middle of the day to hear Bach’s music feels like self-plagiarism. Any hesitation I may have had about the 20-minute walk was dissipated the second I heard Scott Dettra’s excellent performance of the Passacaglia, ever since coming upon Schoenberg’s orchestration one of my favorites in Bach’s organ canon.

If there are two things about the Noontime Cantata concerts that I am less than enthusiastic about, it is the issue of applause in church (I think it has no place there – lest in a commercial performance of a secular work perhaps) and Dr. Reilly Lewis's introductions to the music at hand. To be sure, Dr. Reilly Lewis speaks well and shares insight; his comments are interesting. Still, the minilectures are sometimes too long, too specific for a casual appreciator of Bach, and – like the applause – disrupt the concert’s transporting quality. (It also makes the audience look at their watches. They need to get back to work and eat still, great nourishment though Bach is.) There is a place for these introductions. Indeed, I would pay to hear them, but in the Noontime Cantata Concert Series I find they introduce an unwelcome worldly element to the otherwise surreal, serene experience.

Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe (There is nought of soundness within my body), BWV 25, was the cantata that the WBC presented, with a personnel of 25. Bass Bob Robinson, who took the “Ach, wo hol’ ich Armer Rat” aria, was particularly good. Soprano Kate Vetter Cain, too, convinced. Gam Rose had caught a bad day but managed to struggled through the rest of the recitativo “Die ganze Welt ist mir ein Hospital.” Reviewing these concerts is a particularly unnatural activity. You just want to go, close your eyes, and let all the weight of the world drop from your shoulders. The enthusiastic applause after the cantata may have ripped me out of that state of serenity, but it showed how thankful the crowd was.

The next performance will take place on November 1st - Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte, BWV 174 – as always on the first Tuesday of the month.

Washington Bach Consort at Strathmore

This review appeared originally on DCist (Washington Bach Consort Opens Season, September 24).

One of Washington's musical treasures is the Washington Bach Consort, a group of singers and instrumentalists directed by J. Reilly Lewis. The group began, in 1977, with local musicians who were devoted to the performance of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. After three European concert tours, beginning in the 1980s, and countless critically praised concerts culminating in a landmark appearance at the Library of Congress last April, the WBC has become an institution, recognized far beyond the boundries of the District of Columbia. Over that long history, who knows how many times J. Reilly Lewis has conducted the work that is, in our opinion, the summa of Bach's choral compositions, the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232. Enough times, to be sure, that when leading his group last night at Strathmore, he conducted without the aid of a score. However, there was nothing routine about this performance, because Lewis and his musicians try to make something new each time they perform a work by Bach, even this most familiar work.

The Consort enjoys the attention of a devoted audience, sometimes bordering on the overzealous side of Bachophilia (a necessary quality behind the desire to subscribe to an entire season of mostly Bach's music), and they were out in force for this appearance at Strathmore. While most of the seats were filled, with a few empty places in the expensive front section, it struck me, even in Row F, that the rarefied WBC sound is perhaps better served by a more resonant church or a smaller hall (the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress was ideal, as it is for most chamber groups) than the more cavernous hall at Strathmore. We heard everything, but the acoustic seemed to swallow some of the edges. It's the start of a new season, which means that there were some new faces in the chorus, and one striking absence. Although the group's Web site still lists Gisèle Becker as Assistant Conductor, she was missing from the soprano section and her name was not mentioned in the program. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but for a few years now she has been directing her own group, the Cantate Chamber Singers, and this could be the final parting of the ways between Reilly and Gigi. If so, an era has ended.

Other Reviews: Joe Banno, Bach Consort's Perfect Setting (Washington Post, September 26)

The 25 minutes of the Kyrie (in three large sections, with an embarrassingly long pause after the first one for late seating) flew by very quickly. The Christe movement featured the first sounds of nicely matched twin sopranos (the vocal soloists are also divided into five parts), Suzie LeBlanc on the first part and Rosa Lamoreaux (whom I have heard recently with Hesperus and ArcoVoce) on the second. There were a few minor intonation problems in the orchestra, which appeared to be ironed out by the time we got to the Gloria. That is, except for the oboes, modeled on historical instruments which are difficult to control, where less pleasant sounds, especially in the lower range, were more common (with a very noticeable slip in the second oboe occurring in the middle of the Et in Spiritum Sanctum movement).

The vocal soloists were all very effective, with Belgian countertenor Patrick Van Goethem being an especially rewarding discovery for us. Tenor Alan Bennett was exceptional, especially in those moments were Bach calls for a light, flexible sound in a rather high range, as in the fiendishly difficult Benedictus movement, which was beautiful. Bass Sanford Sylvan had a good sound, unfortunately combined with an exaggerated, mannered sense of diction and a tendency to slide up and especially down intervals of a fifth or larger. The bass's arias in the Mass are the least interesting, in our opinion, and the strangest orchestration. This is especilly true of the Quoniam tu solus sanctus movement, with a natural horn player performing the corno di caccia part in the score. R. J. Kelley did a fine job of getting the best sound he could out of this rather disagreeable instrument. (Commentators on my review of a WBC concert in Fall 2004, which also featured natural horns, gave me flack for claiming that these instruments are played with the bell upward. It turns out that I had indeed remembered correctly: this horn is not played with the fist in the bell but overtones appear to be manipulated with a small finger-button.)

The 30 choral singers were arranged in a single-row horseshoe behind the chamber orchestra, by section. When Bach divides his chorus into five parts, this divides the large soprano section in half, to cover the two soprano parts, resulting in a slightly weakened sound in those movements. Probably as a result, the highest notes sung in the work, high A's and even a few high B's, were not all that could be hoped. The B minor Mass is a work of idealism, not intended to be performed in an actual liturgy. In that sense, Bach experiments with vocal textures, among other things, by bringing together pieces, many of them composed in previous eras of his career, for 5-part chorus (two soprano parts, the choral arrangement preferred in the Catholic city of Dresden, where Bach was interested in working later in life), 6-part chorus (two soprano and two alto parts), various combinations of solo voices, and even 8-part cori spezzati (divided chorus), as well as traditional 4-part chorus. Without a lot of shuffling of singers between movements, there is no ideal way to arrange the singers to accommodate all of those textures.

Like many of the late Bach works, the Mass is a compendium of compositional styles, a sort of encyclopedia of 18th-century church music. In the opening statement of the Kyrie, Bach paraphrases Martin Luther's Kyrie melody from the Deutsche Messe. Later, he also sets Gregorian chant Credo melodies in cantus firmus style in the Symbolum Nicenum movement. (If only Bach had been able to go to Dresden late in his life: Catholic church music would have never been the same.) He includes choral movements in strict stile antico counterpoint, looking backward to the Renaissance, and more modern pieces for soloists, representing newer trends. One of the best reasons to listen to Bach's Mass is the chance to hear the choral movement Et incarnatus est, one of the last pieces composed for this composite work. This little jewel in the heart of the Mass was exquisite in this performance, breathtaking in its simplicity.

For another performance by the full Bach Consort, you will have to wait until December 4 (Sunday, 3 p.m.), for their Christmas concert at their normal venue, National Presbyterian Church. Members of the Washington Bach Consort also give monthly free concerts, on Tuesdays at lunchtime (beginning at 12:10 p.m.), in the Church of the Epiphany (13th and G Sts. NW, near Metro Center). This fall, they will present three of these noontime cantata concerts, on October 4 (Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe, BWV 25), November 1 (Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte, BWV 174), and December 6 (Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist, BWV 45).

UPDATE (from comments):
A singer with the Bach Consort has just written to confirm that Gigi Becker has indeed "retired as co-director of the Bach Consort, mainly to focus on her teaching, performing, and own group, Cantate." I was not jumping to conclusions.

Noontime Cantata

To say so will betray my cultural biases, but the Noontime Cantata Concerts, given by the Washington Bach Consort in the Church of the Epiphany at 13th and G Streets, are the singularly most civilized way to spend ones lunch break in this town. Easily more refreshing than the Gatorade from the street vendor, and more nurishing than a 12-inch roast beef sandwhich from the deli.

Preceding the Bach cantata Was frag ich nach der Welt?, BWV 94 (written for the ninth Sunday after Trinity), was a very fine offering of the Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532. The cantata, introduced with a humurous and cute but probably unnecessary little speech by the Washington Bach Consort's J. Reilly Lewis, was performed admirably by the just 21 participants, which included a chorus of eleven. (I suspect an AWOL alto behind that uneven number.)

The soloists provided for all I can ask for on an early Tuesday afternoon (especially the baritone), and only the intonation of the violins and viola left much to be desired. The opening and closing chorale were most impressive and provided for that respite, that oasis of calm amid the hectic world outside. (As much as I adored these performances, I am not a fan of applause in church concerts, which especially in this case, seems to take more from the magic the concert could be than it contributes.)

Washington Bach Consort at the Library of Congress

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Library of Congress? No matter how disappointed I am by how the American government is run and the stupid, destructive things we spend unforgivable billions on, I can always be sure that we are spending tax money on at least one good thing, and that's this monument to knowledge, the living institution that is the Library of Congress. Even so, the library's free concert series is mostly supported by private donations, and thanks to everyone who donates money, which is well spent. On Friday night, the stage of the historic Coolidge Auditorium, small enough that it is best suited to the performance of chamber music, was crowded with instrumentalists and risers for singers for the members of local choral favorite the Washington Bach Consort.

In an introduction by the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, and lengthy speech by the Consort's director, J. Reilly Lewis, we learned that the Library of Congress and the Bach Consort have agreed to a new partnership, which will bring concerts by the WBC to the LOC regularly in upcoming years. In an interesting development, Reilly Lewis has agreed to donate the entire collection of more than 400 sound recordings of concerts by the Bach Consort, going back to its formation in 1977. This is significant not only because the ensemble, particularly in recent history, has turned in consistently excellent performances of the works of J. S. Bach, but also because they are the only Baroque performance group that has performed the complete choral works of Bach in the United States over its distinguished history. This collection will be a valuable listening resource, especially if it is made available over the Internet.

The concert began, predictably enough, with one of Bach's cantatas, Meine Seel' erhebt den Herren (My soul magnifies the Lord, BWV 10). This work was composed for the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on July 2, 1724, something that I am rather surprised was ever celebrated in Lutheran Leipzig. Apparently, the Mariaphobic attitudes of many Lutherans today were not yet in place in 18th-century Saxony. It is a "chorale cantata" in the sense that it quotes a cantus firmus, a melody that appears in several of the movements, but instead of a chorale, it uses a Gregorian canticle tone, the tonus peregrinus, as it was transformed into a Lutheran chorale melody. This tone was used sometimes to chant the Magnificat canticle, as it is here, in its German version:

Luke 1:46–55, plus Doxology Magnificat anima mea Dominum Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes [...] Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiae suae [...] Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saeculat saeculorum. Amen.

Lutheran Version: 1. Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, Und mein Geist freuet sich Gottes, meines Heilandes; Denn er hat seine elende Magd angesehen. Siehe, von nun an werden mich selig preisen alle Kindeskind. 5. Er denket der Barmherzigkeit Und hilft seinem Diener Israel auf. 7. Lob und Preis sei Gott dem Vater und dem Sohn Und dem Heilgen Geiste, Wie es war im Anfang, jetzt und immerdar Und von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. Amen.

If you read music, here is a .PDF file of the complete score, in piano reduction. The remaining movements (other than the first, fifth, and last) have poetic texts that paraphrase the other verses of the Magnificat canticle, and they do not use the cantus firmus. Along with the B Minor Mass and the Latin version of the Magnificat (BWV 243), this piece gives me the opportunity to dream my little dream of how great it would have been if Bach had been given the last post he really wanted, at the Catholic court of Dresden. Ah, what would Bach's Stabat Mater have been like, if he had composed it in the 1740s? Or a Requiem Mass? Or the Easter sequence Victimae paschali laudes? Not to mention the other Marian texts, all with Gregorian chant cantus firmi, of course!

Why did Reilly Lewis choose this cantata for the Consort's debut at the Library of Congress? Because the Music Division happens to own Bach's original manuscript copy of this cantata (ML 30.8b. B2M4 case), which was on display, under careful surveillance, in the antechamber of the Coolidge Auditorium at intermission and after the concert. Some versions of the score have a trumpet part, which was used in the first, fifth, and last movements only. Probably at a later performance of the work, Bach appears to have replaced the trumpet part with oboes, which is the version that the Bach Consort performed last night. The soaring statement of the canticle tone in the fifth movement sounds glorious with that blaring trumpet, which I missed in this performance. The WBC's rendition was solid and beautiful, with excellent clarity of text and transparency of musical texture, with some uncharacteristic intonation clashes. Of the four soloists, who were all fine, alto Barbara Hollinshead stood out as the richest voice, especially in the gorgeous fifth movement. The continuo players excelled in the crazy ritornello part of the madrigalistic fourth movement, the bass aria Gewaltige stößt Gott vom Stuhl.

The instrumentalists left at intermission, leaving only the chorus and the piano with their conductor. The rest of the program presented a selection of American choral jewels, including two pieces by Elinor Remick Warren, for which the president of her society came all the way from California. This is one of the library's goals, to draw attention to the works of American composers (as mentioned in my review of Thomas Hampson's recital at the Library of Congress last fall). This is not the normal repertoire for the Bach Consort, which is always refreshing for a performing group and for those who listen to them. All ten pieces were well performed, but some stood out more than others, including Remick Warren's Gentle Love, one of her Five Songs from 1955, with its lush harmonies and California sound.

David Conte's Canticle (From the rising of the sun) (from Three Sacred Pieces, 1984) takes the last line of its text ("I will praise your name forever") literally, as it launches into an interlude for piano, four hands (for which Reilly Lewis went from his podium to assist at the piano) in minimalist style, with shifting meters, that accompanies the concluding choral "Alleluia." Also quite beautiful were pieces by Eric Whitacre (hope, faith, life, love, from 1999, set to eight words from an e. e. cummings poem), Ionarts favorite Samuel Barber (Mary Hynes, from the 1930s), and Norman Dello Joio (I Dreamed of a City Invincible, from 1984, on a Walt Whitman poem). These were all pieces that I would very much like to hear again and regularly. Thanks to this excellent concert, I learned about them. Furthermore, I was happy to hear the Consort return to Bach, in whose music they are most comfortable, for an encore of Bach's "Alles was Odem hat. lobet dem Herrn" (All that has breath, praise the Lord), the conclusion of the motet Singet dem Herrn (BWV 225), which I gladly would have sat and listened to in its entirety.

The unofficial early music festival continues at the Library of Congress next Friday (April 22 at 8 pm), with harpsichordist David Cates in an all-Bach program. Ionarts will be there.

UPDATE:
See also Joan Reinthaler's review (Bach Consort, Leaping Easily Into the 20th Century at LOC, April 18) in the Washington Post.

Christmas with the Bach Consort

December is a busy time for musicians. Not that I'm complaining, because when our calendars are full, our paychecks are more substantial, and that's good. Still, after our Christmas Concert Friday night (mentioned here on Thursday), the Washington Bach Consort, for its second concert of the season, performed for the first time in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception the following night, December 4. (See my review of their last concert, Washington Bach Consort Opens 28th Season, September 27.) The fact that they were able to get 600-plus ticket-buyers to come to Northeast, instead of their normal Northwest venues, is hopefully a good sign that they will come back in the future. As conductor J. Reilly Lewis noted in his introductory remarks, the music on the program (Latin and German polyphony from the 16th and 17th centuries) was made with this kind of space in mind. At the end of the concert, Lewis acknowledged not only the audience's applause, but with a boyish smile, beamed upward into the enormous dome over the heads of his choir, as if to give thanks for the acoustics. As someone who sings in that place every week, I know what he was so happy about.

As I noted of their last concert, one of the great strengths of the Bach Consort is their excellent and careful programming. The concept of this program ("Christmas with the Consort") was to bring together music for Advent and Christmas, from the generations of composers before Bach, who provided his own educational background, and a few pieces by Bach himself. The first group of pieces brought together the Gregorian hymn Veni redemptor gentium (in a Michael Praetorius setting played on the chancel organ by Scott Dettra, and chanted by the chorus, with four bells, as they processed to the chancel) with the Lutheran chorale derived from it, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (heard in Bach's choral harmonization, Lob sei Gott, dem Vater g'than, a German hymn doxology, and organ fantasia, BWV 661, played on the gallery organ by Reilly Lewis, with the cantus firmus sounding solidly from those big pedal reeds).

After this brief flirtation with Advent, the selections turned solidly to Christmas texts, with Lutheran chorale settings like Andreas Hammerschmidt's Alleluja! Freuet euch, ihr Christen alle for five-part chorus and three male soloists, Pachelbel's Von Himmel hoch, da komm ich her (played by Reilly Lewis at the gallery organ) and Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (played by Scott Dettra on the portative organ in the chancel), and two choral settings by Michael Praetorius, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (in two interesting parts, sung by seven women) and Ein Kindelein so löbelich. The only Catholic piece in this group was the Latin motet O admirabile commercium! (à 8), by Jacob Handl. This is a beautiful and ancient Gregorian text, but it is not really proper to Christmas, since it was the first antiphon of Lauds on the Octave of Christmas (January 1), sometimes on Epiphany. However, its text is a meditation on the event of Christmas, the "wondrous exchange" effected by God, our humanity for his divinity. The best piece of this section was Constantin Dedekind's setting of the Christmas chorale Uns ist ein Kind geboren for three solo voices (Gisèle Becker, Chris Dudley, and Jon Bruno, on soprano, alto, and bass, respectively), which was beautifully ornamented. Scott Dettra then climbed the stairs to the gallery organ, to play the long Magnificat primi toni by Dietrich Buxtehude.

In the program notes Frank Albinder writes that Melchior Vulpius's Siehe ich sende meinen Engel "is a work particularly suited to Advent," and in collections of Vulpius's music, it is assigned to the third Sunday of Advent. This association with Advent is, I think, post-Gregorian. The text Vulpius set is based on Malachi 3:1 ("Ecce ego mittam angelum meum et praeparabit viam ante faciem meam," or Behold, I will send my angel, and he will prepare the way before me), which was set as an introit in some later chant books, but for the feast of the Guardian Angels (October 2), not Christmas. As I see it, the text does not work particularly well as a Messianic prophecy (Jesus is the angel? John the Baptist is the angel?). The Gregorian introit for Advent III, of course, is Gaudete in domino semper ("Rejoice in the Lord always," which is why the third candle in a traditional advent wreath is rose instead of purple). This doesn't really matter since this piece, like most of Vulpius's music, is quite beautiful listening.

[As I was subsequently reminded on the Third Sunday of Advent, Jesus recast the words of Malachi 3:1, and the similar lines of Exodus 23:20, in the Gospel reading for that day, Matthew 11:2-11, which reads, "This is the one about whom it is written: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you." Interestingly, the words in Luther's German translation are "Siehe, ich sende meinen Boten vor dir her, der deinen Weg vor dir bereiten soll." Why does Vulpius have the word Engel instead of Boten? I don't know.]

The cutest piece on the program was Michael Altenburg's Sing, kling und spring, which has a solo echo quartet, positioned above the choir in the great lectern, that chimes in at the end of each line of text with a rhyming echo. All in all, the Washington Bach Consort measured up to its conductor's rigorous standards. Perhaps the scope of the space or the distance that often separated the halved semi-choruses contributed to the occasional minor problems of tuning or ensemble that were evident. The singers were accompanied by a continuo group of five instruments, played by Alice Robbins (cello), Richard Stone (theorbo), Jeffrey Koczela (bass), Scott Dettra (continuo organ), and a bassoonist who was not named in the program.

The combination of Catholic and Lutheran traditions was always instructive. Tradition was maintained in Hieronymous Praetorius's Magnificat quinti toni (based on the Gregorian canticle tone for mode 5, which is set in a modified form in the alternating polyphonic sections), Samuel Scheidt's Angelus ad pastores ait (the text of a Lauds antiphon on Christmas Day), and Hans Leo Haßler's Hodie Christus natus est (Magnificat antiphon for Christmas Day). A new Protestant ethos, rather, is seen in the personalizing, contextualizing approach of pieces in the same group, like Johannes Eccard's Übers Gebirg Maria geht (in which Mary's journey to Elizabeth's home and her Magnificat are seen as something we ourselves might and should do) and Heinrich Schütz's Sei gegrüßet, Maria, du Holdselige! (in which the chorus echos, for all of us, Mary's words "Behold, I am the Lord's handmaiden"). The program was musically and intellectually very satisfying, and I hope the Bach Consort will come back to Northeast in the future.

UPDATE:
See also Joe Banno's review of this concert (Washington Post, December 6). You have to scroll down the page a bit.

Washington Bach Consort Opens 28th Season

The death of composer Johann Kuhnau meant that the Leipzig City Council had to fill the position of Kantor of St. Thomas Church, which Kuhnau had held from 1701 to 1722, with a suitable candidate. They really wanted Georg Philipp Telemann, who had worked previously in Leipzig, but he ended up accepting a salary increase from his employer in Hamburg, where he really wanted to stay. The council next tried to engage Christoph Graupner, who was educated in Leipzig and was quite successful in his position as Kapellmeister in Darmstadt. Graupner wanted the job but could not convince his employer to release him from his contract. That left only the least desireable, third candidate, an organist with a good if provincial reputation from the jobs he had held around Eisenstadt but whose compositions were not well known. His name was Johann Sebastian Bach.

One of the best listening opportunities in the Washington musical world is the Washington Bach Consort. This chorus and instrumental ensemble is probably the best performing group with a specialized repertory resident in the nation's capital. For the first concert of their 28th season, yesterday afternoon (September 26) at the National Presbyterian Church, the Bach Consort presented a program called "Leipzig Legacy," with works by former Thomaskantor Kuhnau, and the three candidates to replace him, Telemann, Graupner, and of course J. S. Bach. The idea is ingenious, and the execution was superb.

The first piece was a Concerto for Two Horns in F (TWV 52:F 3), which had never been performed in the Americas until yesterday, according to the introduction of the Bach Consort's director, J. Reilly Lewis. The soloists, R. J. Kelley and John Boden, played on natural horns, instruments that have no valves and are not as powerful as their modern descendants. As a result, they are played with the bell turned upward and outward, to maximize the sound production. This concerto is a charming piece in four movements. The opening Largo is really just a brief introduction to the following Allegro. For the most part, Telemann has the two soloists play together almost exclusively, with only a few examples of contrapuntal interplay. The instrument almost requires a composer to use some hunting-call motifs, which are heard in the second movement, sometimes when the orchestra and continuo are all given rests, allowing the horns to play alone. The slow movement (a graceful triple-meter Siciliana) provided the opportunity for the impressively skilled soloists to introduce a number of ornaments, and you can imagine the effect of a trill on a valveless brass instrument. The concluding Allegro has a rollicking, folksy character, complete with a drone-like accompaniment.

The first sound the Bach Consort chorus made was Johann Kuhnau's motet for Holy Week, Tristis est anima mea, which they sang from the sacristy (behind the organ wall) without instrumental accompaniment. Each phrase of text is set to its own expressive music: somber homophonic chords with clashing dissonances ("My soul is sorrowful even unto death"), imitative entrances on a sustained melody ("Stay here a while and watch with me"), strong declamatory homophonic chords ("Now you shall see the mob that will surround me"), imitative entrances on a long descending melody that runs away ("You shall take flight"), and imitative entrances on a striking descending diminished seventh melody ("And I shall go to be sacrificed for you") that comes to a halt on a seventh chord in the 4/2 inversion (on the word "immolari"). When the piece was done, organist Scott Dettra played an ornamented version of the motet on the portative organ to accompany the singers from the back of the church to their risers.

This prevented applause, so that we could appreciate the next piece, J. S. Bach's motet Der Gerechte kommt um, composed later in Leipzig, which is a concerted adaptation of Kuhnau's motet. Its German text ("Now the just man is lost") also seems to be appropriate to Holy Week, and you can clearly hear the poignant themes of his predecessor's work come back in Bach's version: the "Sustinete" motif, the suspensions, and the downward leap of "Ego vadam," filled out triadically in Bach's motet, as well as the dramatic pause on the inverted seventh chord. This was the most interesting part of the concert, in my opinion.

The major duty of the Thomaskantor job was the weekly preparation of a cantata for Sunday performance. The remaining two pieces of the concert's first half were examples of the "audition cantatas" that both Graupner and Bach submitted to the Leipzig Town Council when they applied for the job. Although in his position at Darmstadt, Graupner composed mostly solo cantatas, his cantata Aus der Tiefen rufen wir (Out of the depths we call) is predominantly for chorus, which was the sort of work that was needed in Leipzig. The first movement is a broad homophonic ABA form for chorus, setting a very personal text about suffering in life and waiting for death. The second movement is a set of recitatives and ariosos for tenor, chorus, soprano, and bass, in which we are transported to that final moment of death and seek the support of God in our trial. This sets up a refrain-like return of the A section of the opening chorus ("Aus der Tiefen rufen wir Gott") and the arrival of the third movement ("Brunnquell der Gnaden") introduced by the soprano and alto soloists but mostly sung by the chorus. The instrumental ritornello that introduces the last movement has a very strange syncopated effect in the violins: in a fast triple meter, they have short notes, in separate measures, on beats 1 then 2 then 3. The effect is unsettling but also humorously uplifting.

Bach's audition cantata Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (BWV 23), one of two he submitted, is strikingly different from the Graupner cantata and does a great job of showing the choice the Leipzig Town Council had to make. Bach's cantata is intense, dark, and personal in tone, and its musical devices—such as vocal counterpoint and the use of the chorale Christe, du Lamm Gottes (a German adaptation of the Gregorian ordinary chant Agnus dei)—are far more complex and challenging to singers and listeners. The first movement, an aria for soprano and alto soloists, has a gorgeous instrumental ritornello that introduces the contrapuntal solo parts. The chorale is played by the orchestra to accompany the second movement, a recitative for tenor soloist. The third movement features the chorus answering solo lines, which Bach tends to use to highlight the individual lines of the text (as at "Und die meinen sonderlich," or "And mine own especially"). Bach later incorporated this cantata's beautiful final movement, a concerted setting of the same chorale melody, into his St. John's Passion.

The second half of the concert began with Scott Dettra playing Bach's Toccata in E Major (BWV 566) from the church's large main organ. This piece is fairly typical of the toccata genre, as it is divided into several short sections in different styles, including two large fugal sections. Mr. Dettra is a recent addition to the musical life of Washington. In addition to his work with the Bach Consort, he plays for the Cathedral Choral Society and Episcopal High School in Alexandria. You should be glad he is here, because the man can play. The first fugal section of this toccata was played at an incredibly fast tempo and with remarkable accuracy.

To fit with the ingenious idea of the program, giving the audience the chance to hear the three candidates for the Leipzig position side by side, it would have been more interesting to hear an example of Telemann's cantatas. Director J. Reilly Lewis explained his choice of the concerto for two horns, which opened the program, as a desire to feature the two horn soloists, who also played for the secular cantata that concluded the program, Bach's Dramma per musica: Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen (BWV 213), more commonly known as Herkules auf dem scheidewege (Hercules at the crossroads). This quasi-operatic piece (the closest Bach ever was to composing an opera, at any rate), on a text by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici) was composed in 1733 to be performed in the Leipzig coffee garden run by Gottfried Zimmermann.

For the Bach Consort's performance, J. Reilly Lewis conducted while playing some of the continuo parts on the portative organ, while Scott Dettra played the other continuo parts from the harpsichord. After an opening chorus, most of this cantata consists of arias and recitatives for the four vocal soloists, the most famous of which is Hercules's aria Treues Echo dieser Orten (Faithful Echo of these places). The oboe obbligato part was echoed by the first oboist, who was off in one of the transepts, and the vocal solo (Patricia Green) was echoed by one of the choral singers, Gisèle Becker, who was behind the pulpit. This aria, as well as most of the music from this secular cantata, were reused by Bach in the fourth part of his Christmas Oratorio. In my opinion, the music is used to much greater effect in its sacred setting, and the inanity of the secular text may have been part of the reason why Bach wanted to use this music again.

All in all, this was an excellent performance. The Bach Consort is still providing Washington the chance to hear historically informed and beautiful renditions of the works of Bach and the rest of the 18th century. J. Reilly Lewis, the master of color and texture, brought out the finest details from his musicians with his often strange gestures. The horn soloists and all four vocal soloists (Jacqueline Horner, Patricia Green, Joseph Gaines, and James Weaver) performed well. There were a few moments of rhythmic disunity, in the third movement of Du wahrer Gott, for example, all of which were quickly righted. What I did miss in this performance was ornamentation, especially on all of those da capo repeats of A sections, and particularly from the vocal soloists.