Thereabouts

I do love the baroque and thereabouts and I love seeing commonalities with jazz improv and classical composition, diminished and cycles and the like.  It just goes to show the relationships of history and modernity, at least here in a European context.  CIMF was mostly more modern, especially MOSSO, so The Southern Concert was a pleasant and diverse interlude.  Lots of singing from Greta Claringbould with her lovely soprano voice accompanied several names I know but some I didn't.  Stephen Freeman and Lauren Davis and Clara Teniswood but theorbo (and guitar) from Shaun Ng and harpsichordist, Rosalind Halton, and Odette Bruinzeel, viola.  Newer names for me, I think some or all from out of town.  They played a quartet from Evaristo Dall-Abaco, a solo toccata from Alessandro Piccinini and two major vocal works, cantatas da camera, Giovanni Bononcini Ecco, Dorinda, il giorno and Scarlatti Olimpia.  Quite a quiet interlude in St Paul's, ignoring the traffic and the incipient sunlight, of course.  

The Southern Concert performed at St Paul's, Manuka.  SC comprised Greta Claringbould (soprano), Stephen Freeman and Lauren Davis (violins), Odette Bruinzeel (viola), Clara Teniswood (cello), Shaun Ng (theorbo, guitar) and Rosalind Halton (harpsichord).

Time travels

I do wonder how many towns the size of Canberra are supplied with musicians like this town.  Concerts just seem to roll in, frequently, during the week or conflict over the weekend.  And so I managed to fit a Canberra Bach Ensemble sets of four oratorios into the Saturday evening between a final rehearsal and a Maruki concert.  More on that next.  But it's busy.  And CBE concerts are not lightweight.  Four cantatas featuring ~50 performers comprising choir and soloists and period instrumentalists, some visiting from Melbourne or Sydney for the event, but mostly local.  That's 2 hours of performance with an interval in the middle.  Not shirking.  And each cantata preceded by a presumably related motet by another composer, all cantatas for the Jubilate Sunday, once the Third Sunday after Easter.  True to form, the baroque instruments were wooden and detuned and of considerable interest and some rarity or at least uncommonness.  We got a long necked Theorbo from violinist Shaun Ng, a sixth flute (essentially a descant recorder in D) that had been borrowed by Robyn Mellor from Melbourne, oboes d'amore and baroque bassoons and the like.  And plenty of gut for the tone.  The choir sounded glorious, the vocal soloists informed and clear, the whole a glorious and generous indulgence in the period and quite a learning proposition.  Thanks once again to Andrew and CBE.

Canberra Bach Ensemble performed under Andrew Koll (director) with Stephen Freeman (concertmaster), Greta Claringbould (soprano), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Timothy Reynolds (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass).

A matter of will

I hadn't realised the extent of Andrew Koll's programming until after this latest Canberra Bach Ensemble concert at St Christopher's.  We chatted after and he told us of the theme, the will of God.  I had been amused by a translated line, Lord, as you will! (Herr, wie du willt!, apparently by extension, the Mind of God) but it's a clear statement of religious trust and faith especially of the time and place.  These cantatas covered this issue, mostly be being written for the same weekend of the religious year (third Sunday after Epiphany on consecutive years 1724,1725,1726), other than one written a week later (Septuagesima 1725).  I guess I could have read the program.  But from the start, I just closed my eyes to experience the rolling harmonies in repeated lyrical lines, through the various voices, all clear and precise and deeply beautiful.  The start was a quote from St John Passion on the same topic, God's will, presented as choir without backing, leading into BWV 111, then BWV 92, then an interval and BWV 73 and BWV 72.  Throughout this was openings and closings of choruses with arias and recitatives within variously from soprano, alto, tenor and bass.  It's a formula that's repeated in this these cantatas, once written each week for Leipzig churches.  To conceive of the intensity of this work, a cantata a week, is overwhelming but Bach did it and we have the pleasure of it.  The choir was 36 through SATB and the accompaniment was 16 between strings, winds and continuo.  There was a segment with two solo violins and Andrew highlighted that it was similar to Bach's double violin concerto and that's just indicative of his sharing themes in the whirlwinds of producing all this music.  And there were segments of quick, non-stop cello from Clara and delightfully precisely articulated and fast contrabass (not really a violone) that floored me.  I had my eyes closed for the baroque horn but heard baroque oboe and bassoons often enough.  But these are just things noticed amongst a night of glorious Bach religious cantatas played and sung with real love and considerable understanding.  A great, great pleasure.

Andrew Koll (musical director, conductor) led the Canberra Bach Ensemble at St Christopher's Cathedral in a choral excerpt from St John Passion and BWVs 111,92,73,72 on the Will of God.  Key performers were Stephen Freeman (Orchestra Leader), Greta Claringbould (soprano), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Timothy Reynolds (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass) and some favourite bottom-enders of mine, Clara Teniswood (cello) and  Kyle Ramsay0Daniel (bass).

Ridiculous, sublime, whatever

So, my second musical outing after Japan and following SoundOut was Canberra Bach Ensemble.  How can you not love Bach?  He's so much a great love of our era and his cantatas are big choral works which inevitably thrill and his counterpoint is sublime.  This was CBE's triumphant return concert after performing in Leipzig, Bach's most famous home, for this year's Leipzig Bach Festival.  It must have been thrilling for those who attended.  I know they picked up bass and keys there and maybe others.  These are not instruments to easily travel with.  But then this is the home of Bach and also apparently the oldest orchestra, from the Gewandhaus, and plenty of players who play Bach cantatas regularly, so no particular problem.  This concert was back to Canberra brick rather than German stone but the thrill was still there.  Four cantatas over two hours of performance.  I can enjoy the interludes, the recitatives and arias, the singers with solo or small accompaniments, but nothing does it for me like the choruses, with blaring period trumpets and blurting oboes da caccia and driving gut bass playing with oddly grouped lines that double up unexpectedly and carry on releantlessly.  Thrilling and exultant.  Loved this one as all!

Canberra Bach Ensemble performed BWV119,148,192,137 and an encore of a wedding cantata BWV195 at St Christopher's, Manuka, under Andrew Koll (director).  Singers were Greta Claringbould (soprano), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Timothy Reynolds (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass).  Stephen Freeman (violin) led the orchestra and Kyle Ramsey-Daniel (bass) performed on Dave's gut 5-stringer.