Bach is back. After the past years’ reframing of the annual Bach Festival to accommodate Covid restrictions (Zoom performances, small gatherings), the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory in Berea once again offered a weekend full of Bach (especially) and other related music and events. There were lectures, rare manuscript displays, and even instruction in Baroque dance offered, but the major attractions were the three featured concerts.
Opening night, April 21, in a program labeled “Bach and the Brandenburgs,” the Baroque band ACRONYM (and guest performers) presented an all-Bach concert, which featured two of J. S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos, along with select shorter works.
On April 22, BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir, performed with ACRONYM in a program one audience member dubbed “A Baroque Club Sandwich” and another compared to a Russian Doll. It was for sure packed with varied and harmoniously arranged musical elements. The official title was “Appear and Inspire.” It was inspiring.
Large ensemble pieces opened the program and smaller works continued the evening until the stage filled again to conclude the concert. It was refreshing to hear the performers demonstrate how well — how very well — they collaborated as one, and then to listen to bright individual sounds presented in smaller works.
Details: Both guest ensembles joined to open the program with the motet Komm Jesu, Komm (BWV 229). Next came two movements of the Bach Violin Sonata in G Major (BWV 1019) played by violinist Edwin Huizinga and harpsichordist Elliot Figg, and after that, two songs by Benjamin Britten with soprano soloists Paulina Francisco and Madeline Healey.
The middle of the program featured a larger ensemble, including student and guest performers, presenting Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, Op. 27. After that, we moved back to solo vocal performances of two more Britten pieces with soprano MaryRuth Miller and alto Dianna Grabowski. And then, the last two movements of the Bach G major sonata played by Huizinga and Figg. The concert ended with Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden (BWV 230) performed by both ensembles.
All of this sounds more complicated than it was, and works both short and long flew by in a little over an hour.
Sunday afternoon April 23, in a welcome return to tradition, Bach’s Mass in B Minor (BWV 232), often lauded as one of Bach’s most beloved works for choir and orchestra, concluded the 91st Bach Festival at BW.
The engaging performance featured BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir, the BW Motet Choir, and the BW Festival Orchestra with ACRONYM — all conducted by Dirk Garner.
Instrumental soloists included Sean Gabriel, flute; Dana Sundet, oboe d’amore; Christopher Jackson, bass; Alden Call, horn, and Sam Hudock, oboe. Continuists included Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello; Sue Yelanjian, bass; Thomas English, bassoon, and Jason Aquila, organ.
Featured vocalists included sopranos Paulina Francisco, Madeline Apple Healey, Amanda Powell and MaryRuth Miller; altos Andrew Leslie Cooper, Dianna Grabowski, Kate Maroney and Joseph Schlesinger; tenors John Russell, Gene Stenger and Matthew Tresler, and basses Dominic Aragon, Jonathan Cooper, Christopher Jackson and Harrison Gilberti.
Bottom Line: It was refreshing to hear these compelling performances at the 91st Bach Festival at Baldwin Wallace prove why J. S. Bach still lives as an eternal musical force that inspires and enlivens our knowledge of and appreciation for “old” music.
[Written by Laura Kennelly: Member, Cleveland Critics Circle, Music Critics Association of North America]