A Baroque Christmas in Sacramento

Last night at SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center in Sacramento we attended a lovely small orchestra concert with Margaret Batjer, conductor and violin.  I am calling these types of concerts twofers.  That means you get a soloist and a conductor for the price of one.  It's becoming very popular.  In fact the previous Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera concert was also a twofer.   Margaret's experience is as a concert mistress, and that's where she spent most of her time in the concert.  Only in the Bach violin concerto did she stand in front of the orchestra.  The rest of the time she sat in concert master's place on a raised platform where everyone could easily see her.

BACH Violin Concerto in A minor 

Allegro 
Andante 
Allegro assai

HAYDN Symphony No. 8 in G major "Le soir"

Allegro molt
Andant
Minuetto
La tempesta: Presto

Since it was in fact Haydn who invented the four movement symphony format, I reminded my friends that the other guys were not familiar with this form.  Corelli was even earlier than Bach.

 CORELLI Concerto Grosso in G minor.  "Christmas Concerto"

I. Vivace – Grave 
II. Allegro
III. Adagio - Allegro – Adagio
IV. Vivace
V. Allegro 

A concerto grosso involves a small ensemble, this time a string quartet, that alternates with the full orchestra.

BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major

I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Presto

The Brandenburg Concertos are also concerti grossi.  The small ensemble in this particular case is a violin and two flutes.  The two flutists were not named, but I am going to assume they were Matthew Krejci and Elizabeth Coronati.

Our complaints about the previous concert seemed not to apply here.  We were quite happy with the acoustics.  Our guest violinist seemed to play significantly louder than the other string players.  We loved both the chosen repertoire and the manner in which it was played.

Bach's Matthew Passion

There has been some controversy about Johann Sebastian Bach's Matthäus-Passion, claiming that it is anti-Semitic and should never be performed. 

In my time in school my teacher John Lewis was a great lover of Bach, so as I result I sang everything:  St Matthew, St John, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, B minor Mass, and misc. cantatas.  The "Erbarme dich" from St Matthew is my favorite Bach aria.  It is important to notice that this aria begs the Lord to forgive ME!  The loss of this work from our repertoire would for me be the most terrible tragedy. 

There are two types of texts in the Passions:  Invented poems found in the arias and choruses, and actual Biblical texts from the translation by Martin Luther.  The Roman Catholic Church used only the Latin Bible.  The Evangelist, Jesus and others speak what to Christians is the sacred word of God.  Except for Pilate and his guys, everyone in the story is a Jew including Jesus, Judas, Peter, etc.  Jesus has just processed into Jerusalem and been hailed as the Messiah.  My theory is that the priests of the temple saw Jesus as competition.  It's politics, not religion.  So the anti-Semitic parts come entirely from the New Testament.

These are the core beliefs of Christianity.  Calling them anti-Semitic just seems absurd.  Which side of the quarrel are we supposed to be on?  You can be a Christian without being a Jew, but you can't be the Messiah without being a Jew.

Calling this, the greatest of all Christian musical religious works, evil is not something I could accept.  Should we translate it into Latin?  I've been feeling flabbergasted.  America is founded on freedom of religion, and this feels to me a bit like book burning.

ABS Orphean Enchantments

This is sort of a bad news entry.  I have been driving to Davis to see the American Bach Soloists since I moved to Sacramento.  My first entry, I believe, was in 2013.  I was happy about the fact that they played mostly Bach and in excellent style.  I attended performances of the St John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion, the Magnificat, the B Minor mass, Brandenberg Concertos, Orchestral Suites, etc.  That's a lot of Bach.  Occasionally other things appeared.

Well, Monday they performed only one piece by Bach:  Concerto in A Minor for Harpsichord, flute, violin, Strings and Basso Continuo.  Well, that sounds like a concerto grosso to me.  That's a small group of soloists who play both with and without the larger group of strings.  It was just ok.

In addition they played some pieces with Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, a countertenor.  I have recently warmed up to countertenors, but would always prefer to hear a female mezzo.  Oh well.  I wish I liked him better.  He sang:

Vivaldi's Stabat Mater
Buxtehude's Jubilate Domino omnis terra
Johann Christoph Bach's Lamento
Hoffmann's Schlage doch, gewuenswchte Stunde [previously attributted to Bach.]

This is the first time I have not enjoyed one of their concerts.  Part of this is old age which makes it exhausting to drive to Davis.  The conductor Jeffrey Thomas said that they would be doing less Bach this season.  They would teach us to enjoy other things.  I have only gotten really enthusiastic about their Bach.  That's why I'm here.

American Bach Soloists Matthew Passion

And last night I drove to Davis in the rain to see Bach's Saint Matthew Passion sung in German.  For the beautiful work of the American Bach Soloists led by Jeffrey Thomas this is a short trip.

In my youth I performed a lot of Bach, including the "Erbarme dich" from this work.  I very much admired the performance of mezzo-soprano Agnes Vojtko who sang it here.  The entire piece lies in my heart like a buried treasure.

A performance of this monumental, life altering work rises and falls with the evangelist, here Guy Cutting, and the singer who performs Jesus, here William Sharp, both excellent in their roles.

With American Bach Soloists there are no weaknesses.  The original instruments orchestra lists the makers of all the instruments below the players' names.  The concert mistress Elizabeth Blumenstock plays a Guarneri.  The style is perfection, and how can anyone resist the tiny booming chorus.

Thank you.

American Bach Soloists in Davis

I enjoyed this concert by the American Bach Soloists in Davis on Monday very much.  Above is their conductor Jeffrey Thomas.  This concert consisted of 2 Brandenburg Concertos, No.1 and No.3, and The Hunting Cantata.  One reason for loving this group is because in addition to calling themselves after Bach they also play a lot of Bach.  In this case the entire concert was Bach.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major began the concert.  Of the two concertos this one was the less familiar.  I believe it was chosen because it includes two parts for natural horns which appear again in The Hunting Cantata.  Elizabeth Bloomenstock, the concert mistress, was also a soloists here.

Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G Major, a very familiar work, orchestrated for three violins, three violas and 3 cellos with continuo, completed the first half.  All 9 designated parts perform as soloists   It is an unusual orchestration both for Bach and for the world at large.  Bach was always trying to stretch himself.

Apparently it is the habit of this group to add movements to established works. Brandenburg No.3 has only two movements, but an allegro from a trio sonata transcribed from an organ piece was inserted between the other two movements.  The players reorganized themselves.  The complex concerto was well played.

For me the treat of this concert came after the intermission:  The Hunting Cantata, a work written to praise the Margrave of Brandenburg Schwedt.  The Margrave was named Christian, a word that appears several times in the text.  I found it interesting that they would use his first name.  Apparently he was much loved and enjoyed hunting.  The hit tune from this work I had not heard before is "Sheep may safely graze." 

The performance began with the Allegro from Oboe Concerto in F Major featuring the oboist Stephen Bard?  The vocal soloists were:

• Hélène Brunet soprano (Pales)
• Julie Bosworth soprano (Diana)
• Derek Chester tenor (Endymion)
• Mischa Bouvier baritone (Pan)

The Hunting Cantata is the most cheerful and lively piece by J.S. Bach I have ever heard.  It is fun and was of course very well performed.

Bach Orchestral Suites

American Bach Soloists performed all four of Bach's orchestral suites on Monday in Davis in the order IV, II, I, III.  This seems to be their groove.

II was scored as a transverse flute solo which was played by Sandra Miller.  It was rather like a concerto in the form of a suite.  It was gorgeous.

This completed their season.  See you next year.

St. John Passion in Davis

 

Jeffrey Thomas conductor

Remember when I said about the motets concert by American Bach Soloists last April, "Choosing to play all of them on one program would have to do with generating a CD, probably." You probably don't remember it. Well now there is a CD called Bach's Motets for Double Chorus from American Bach Soloists based on the this concert.  It was an easy prediction.

Coffee

Perhaps you thought being addicted to coffee was something new.  You would be mistaken.  Apparently in Bach's day it was limited to females.  Or perhaps it's the usual men get to do whatever they want while women have to be controlled.  Sacramento Baroque Soloists presented a semi-staged version of Johann Sebastian Bach's Coffee Cantata with three soloists:  Derek Keller as the narrator, Omari Tau as papa Schlendarian and Bernadette Mondok as his daughter Lischen.  This was charming and amusing.  Coffee was provided.

Sacramento Baroque Soloists are a new group for me, though I think they have been around Sacramento for a while.

The program was filled out with a concerto by Georg Philipp Telemann and Cantata BWV 54 by Bach.  Derek Keller was the soloist in the Bach Cantata where he billed himself as a countertenor, and later in the Coffee Cantata he was a tenor.  I didn't hear falsetto from him.  For me he sounded more like a haute contra, a French style of high tenor.  He sounded fine, just not like a countertenor.

Bach's Matthew Passion from Berlin

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor
Petter Sellars, staging

Mark Padmore Tenor (Evangelist),
Christian Gerhaher Bass (Jesus),
Camilla Tilling Soprano,
Magdalena Kožená Mezzo-Soprano (Musician),
Topi Lehtipuu Tenor (Arias),
Thomas Quasthoff Baritone (Arias)

This is the way I like it.  The continuo sounds like a synthesizer which I can take or leave.  Sorry, I like a real orchestra like the Berliner Philharmoniker.  I like a fairly big chorus and lots of emotional intensity.  Peter Sellars adds the element of movement to further intensify the emotion.  Padmore and Kozena are the best for this. This is Jesus as everyman, I guess.  He stands high over the others and is growing on me.

You know it's working when your heart swells.  I want to be clear.  One has never seen a staged Matthew Passion before, but one does not mind it.  It's interesting that the various characters of the drama interact with the evangelist, not Jesus.  Everyone is memorized, like an opera.

The ear is cut off.  Jesus is taken.  The chorus runs off into the audience, children enter and everyone sings from around the house.  I have been here and think it would be a joy to experience this.  Part of the fun is to watch Simon Rattle.

I love it very much.  Of course, nothing is so wonderful as to sing it.  This is Easter for me.

Magdalena will now sing the most beautiful aria ever written while kneeling.  My heart is full.  Here we sit down and cry.  They do this.  Matthew has written a wonderful story which is the more vivid with this glorious music and acting.

It plays still today, Monday.  There are no titles.

American Bach Soloists do Bach Motets

Jeffrey Thomas conductor

Motets

Bach: Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir BWV 228
Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229
Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf BWV 226
Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225

The program was filled out with 2 other recently attributed motets and 2 trio sonatas.Bach:

Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt  BWV Anh. 160

Bach and Beethoven at the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera.

The latest concert with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera featured guest conductor Andrew Grams with Peter Serkin and Tomoki Park on the two Steinway grand pianos.

The concert opened with the Brahms Academic Festival Overture.  When they reached "Gaudeamus Igitur," my friend and I began to sing along.  I even remember the words from when I played a student in The Student Prince. 

The second piece was for 2 pianos and orchestra by Toru Takemitsu and was composed in part for Peter Serkin. I found this piece pleasant and enjoyable, but was shocked to find that I did not like at all the Bach Double Keyboard Concerto which was switched to BWV 1061 at the last minute from 1062.  Bach's keyboards would have been harpsichords, but we are all well accustomed to pianos on these pieces.

The concert closed with a lovely rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.  Beethoven always comes through.  I liked Andrew Grams enthusiasm.

Concerts in the Sacramento Area

Andrés Cárdenes

The first Sacramento Philharmonic concert of the year featured the man pictured above.  All season each concert will be led by a different conductor.  With Maestro Cárdenes we got two for the price of one when he both conducted and played the violin solo for the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3.  I especially liked Mendelssohn's The Hebrides which has very unusual orchestration for its period.  It was an enjoyable concert.

American Bach in Davis

Conductor:  Jeffrey Thomas
Violin and Viola d'amore:  Elizabeth Blumenstock
Violin:  Cynthia Black
Countertenor:  Ian Howell
Cello:  Gretchen Claassen

The American Bach Soloists, who generally play in a church in Davis, are my favorite group in the greater Sacramento area.  They did not fail to please.

St Matthew Passion by ABS

The original instruments movement seems to be everywhere.  One of the fun things is to see such a wide variety of musical instruments.  In Monday night's performance in Davis by the American Bach Soloists of the Bach St. Matthew Passion, performed in German, there was a viola da gamba and wooden flutes.  Perhaps I should keep a list.

Acis and Galatea

 Corey Jamason (seated), Kyle Stegall (our Acis) and Nola Richardson (our Galatea)

Conductor:  Jeffrey Thomas

Galatea:  Nola Richardson
Acis:  Kyle Stegall
Damon:  Zachary Wilder
Polyphemus:  Mischa Bouvier

Handel's Acis [ACE-iss] and Galatea was originally devised as a one-act masque which premiered in 1718 [some of these words borrowed from Wikipedia].  I decided to use the Wikipedia description of this work because it is a bit difficult to pin down.  It isn't an opera.  Why?  In that period opera was in Italian.  The text here is in English by John Gay before he became famous for The Beggars Opera.  It's completely outside of Handel's oratorio period.  So we're going with masque, a popular form during the life of Henry Purcell whose work this somewhat resembles.  There is Purcell-like text painting, for instance.  There is no dancing.  Never mind.

I went last night to hear the American Bach Soloists perform Handel's Acis and Galatea.  For me they are the best classical group that appears anywhere near Sacramento.

And what a wonderful piece.  Who knew Handel could compose such fun, frolicking music?  The finale of Act I says, "Happy we!  What joys we feel!  What charms we see!" and a celesta suddenly appears to accompany the chorus.  This number was encored at the end.  Have I ever seen an encore at an orchestral concert in America?  They do it all the time in Italy.

Even the monster Polyphemus who appears in Act II to produce the sad ending is strangely charming.  Mischa Bouvier is one of my special favorites.  Why don't we see him in more places?  He sings, "Die, presumptuous Acis, die!" in a rather adorably savage way.  No, I can't explain it.  It's a love triangle.  I'm not sure what the character Damon is for.  He's like the voice of your mother in your ear telling you not to do bad things.

 

As a kind of prelude, Bach's Brandenburg Concert 4 was performed, with solos by Elizabeth Blumenstock (above) on violin, and Judith Linsenberg and Debra Nagy on recorders.

Everything they do is fabulous.  And Mary Wilson received a mention in Opera News best of 2014 in Laudate Pueri Dominum with American Bach Soloists (ABS).

American Bach

Our American Bach Soloists concert had a bigger chorus and a smaller orchestra. There was a violone which looks like a large viola da gamba with 6 strings. There was something called a taille which looked very much like an oboe da caccia. There were 4 other string players, an organist and three other double reeds.

The title of our concert was Bach's Legacy.

I
Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren, Bach
Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Bach
Sechs Sprueche zum Kirchenjahr, Mendelssohn
Der Geist hilft unser Schwchheit auf, Bach

II
Fest-und Gedenksprueche, Brahms
Komm, Jesu, komm, Bach
Komm, Jesu, Komm, Sandstroem
Verleih uns Frieden, Bach
Verleih uns Frieden, Mendelssohn
Komm, suesser Tod, Bach
Immortal Bach, Nystedt

The idea of the second half was to show a piece by Bach and then follow it with another later piece on the same text. This resulted in some fascinating contrasts, especially with the modern composers. The chorus is selected and trained for the music of Bach. I felt it worked very well for everything except Brahms whom I prefer in a more romantic style. Bach in our lives is basically due to Mendelssohn.

American Bach

I chose this photo because it was the only one I could find that shows Elizabeth Blumenstock, the concert mistress, even if it's only the back of her head.

They were terrific last night in Davis, as always, especially the double reeds:  Debra Nagy, Stephen Bard and Dominic Teresi.

Murray at Mondavi

Murray Perahia in a single sentence:  the harder it is the better he plays.

So maybe you wanted more.  He got three standing ovations, and beat the piano so hard someone had to come out and tune it during intermission.

JS Bach, French Suite #4
Beethoven Appassionata
Schumann Papillons
Chopin Scherzo #2

These are widely divergent styles of music.  I would like to hear more difference between the different styles.  He has excess amounts of WOW, but maybe wow isn't everything.  I liked the Beethoven best.

This isn't my area of expertise, so I'm going to shut up now.

ABS Magnificat

Last night I went to Davis to see the American Bach Soloists, an excellent Baroque ensemble.

Wonderful Things in 2013 so far

I believe this is chronological rather than ranked.

Ainadamar.  I keep looking to see what Opera Parallèle is going to do in the coming season, but nothing has been announced.  Here is a film of the opening.




Parsifal - I can't believe I'm saying this.  Here is a clip of Kaufmann singing "Amfortas!  Die Wunde!"



Neon lightning in the last scene of Rigoletto in the Met simulcast.  I couldn't find a film.

Cecilia's Norma recording.  This clip is "Mira Norma."




Discovering that the American Bach Soloists play in Davis.  I love the way they play Bach.  Here is the Kyrie and Gloria from the Messa in H-moll.



Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann in Il Trovatore from Munich.

Natalie and Matthew in Tales of Hoffmann. 

Finding the film of Die Walküre with James Morris on YouTube.

And the best was Ainadamar.  These include live, simulcast, filmed, recorded and streamed performances.