Long noted as the “oldest collegiate Bach Festival” and now billed as the “first collegiate Bach Festival,” the annual celebration of (almost) all things Bach by Baldwin Wallace University in Berea continued in fine style the last weekend in April. Now in its 82nd year, the festival presented several works by Bach–the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, and a cantata (Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1).
The orchestra (primarily Baldwin Wallace undergraduates, plus guest artists) under conductor Dwight Oltman’s baton came together with welcome vitality to celebrate Bach and his music. This was Oltman’s farewell to the Bach Festival (he is retiring this year) and this knowledge seemed to add a special spirit to performances by clearly grateful and engaged performers. Choir director Dirk Gardner prepared the informed (and lightly bouncing) choristers as their voices imbued centuries-old masterworks with vibrant relevance and youthful energy. Both choir and orchestra also avoided making Bach’s works sound like set pieces out of a music museum.
Saturday night’s St. John Passion featured Rufus Müller as Evangelist, Christòpheren Nomura as Jesus, Daniel Lichti, Meredith Hall, Jennifer Lane, and Colin Balzer. The soloists all honored Bach’s great work; Müller (who sang from memory) and Hall (familiar to Apollo’s Fire fans) brought near-mesmerizing immersion and focus into their roles.
For something new, Musica Pacifica and Catherine Turocy’s New York Baroque Dance Company performed separately and together on Saturday to re-create baroque music and dance from several countries. The collaboration and the story-based skits about dancing allowed an often funny and always welcome glimpse into past societies.
As is customary, other events were free, such as a church service at the United Methodist Church in Berea that mixed the congregation’s regular prayers and sermon with Durante’s Magnificat in B-flat sung by the BW Singers under the direction of Marc Weagraff. The Festival Brass, conducted by John Brndiar, played (when it wasn’t raining) from the Marting Tower across the street from the Conservatory of Music.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.
Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.
Berea, OH 44017