My little wedding gig meant I was late for Canberra Bach Ensemble with their latest string of Advent cantatas. It's obviously a nostalgic return for me to the cantatas at home in Leipzig and this group will be playing at next year's BachFest so it's virtually the same thing. I just caught the second half and some lovely song, notably several appearances from a visiting Sydney tenor Thomas Hallworth and a duet from Greta and Maartje and some bass recitative from Andrew as well as a few features from Bianca and friends in the instrumental section and a feature on the curved oboe da caccia. And always Dave's very unrelenting bass part played on a gut 5-string with baroque bow. Also noteworthy and parallelling the common role of organ in Leipzig was the final, thundering organ piece to finish the show, played by James Porteous on an instrument sequestered in the adjacent chapel. I was not the only one looking for the source of that sometimes big sound. Organ had a prominent role in the cantata services that I saw in Leipzig so it fitted wonderfully. I was taken, too, but the voluminous strength of the SATB chorales when they took flight. Loud and boisterous and not at all delicate, even if perfectly correctly performed. This felt to me like the visiting Australian cousins with their outspoken ways, and it worked a powerful treat. So I caught some, not all, and enjoyed it and look forward to our Canberra presence next year in Bach's town.
Canberra Bach Ensemble performed advent cantatas (BWV61,62,36,1) at St Christopher's Cathedral in Manuka. CBE was directed by Andrew Koll (conductor) with Bianca Porcheddu (violin) as concert master and solo singers Greta Claringbould (soprano), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Thomas Hallworth (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass).
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