J. S. Bach Lived at the Bach Week Festival

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Sunday, April 26th, at Evanston’s Music Institute of Chicago, was the concluding day for this year’s Bach Week Festival, although really a weekend. The first concert was held on Friday and was a harpsichord affair. The concert on Sunday seemed to have representative works from the rest of Bach’s oeuvre, featuring a cantata, a motet, two concerti and a suite for solo cello. Excellent performances abounded, but the MVP awards went to David Schrader on harpsichord and Katinka Kleijn, cello. Their contributions, together with the passion and commitment of everyone involved, made this concert a true highlight of the music season.

The concert began with the cantata, BWV 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen,for solo soprano and orchestra. The soloist was local diva Patrice Michaels, a stellar soprano with an agile voice. As the cantata progressed, her expressive abilities came to the fore, especially in the aria Hochster, mache deine Gute. Madame Michaels took all of Bach’s operatic pyrotechnics in stride, producing precise if not booming sound. Accompanying her was Christopher Martin on obbligato trumpet. Though his part was minor, it was played flawlessly on his modern instrument. What more could one expect from the principal of the Chicago Symphony?

Michael Henoch, also with the CSO, on oboe d’amore, performed Bach’s Concerto for oboe d’ amore and orchestra, BWV 1055a. Henoch is a very capable performer and truly enjoyed the rhythmic nature of the piece. You could see him bobbing his head as he read the music during his rests. The only issue was when he began to play, it was barely audible. The oboe in question had a very low tone, and it was played without much energy. The plus side was that we were able to hear this dark hued instrument, a rarity, in concert.

The accompanying forces for both pieces were intimate – a total of ten strings with David Schrader on either portative organ or harpsichord. His continuo work, along with cello Katinka Kleijn and bass Collins Trier, was really well done. Richard Webster, music director of the Bach Week, had a lot of faith in his highly capable performers, and all involved played admirably and with much warmth of tone.

All those players went away, however, to make room for the Bach Week Festival Chorus, a large group numbering over thirty, who performed the Motet Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 with the help of the continuo section. A subdued and intricate piece, the chorus performed the short work well, although at times the soprano section’s presence was a little too prominent.

After the intermission, spent outside on a rather summer-like evening, Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn entered the stage to breathe new life into Bach’s Suite No.1 for solo cello. She played swiftly, but never hurriedly. At every moment, the music, its phrasing, dynamics, tempo, bore the mark of Kleijn’s interpretation. It was astounding to hear her fly through the opening prelude, for example, but then encounter a slight rubato hesitation when the cello line reaches its lowest note, as if diving into the darkness. It was an electric performance and the audience responded with rapturous applause.

The evening concluded with an upping of the ante, if you will. The Brandenburg Concerto No.5 is scored for orchestra, with solo flute, violin and harpsichord. Anita Miller Rieder, playing on a modern transverse flute, performed the piece beautifully. Its soft tone blended nicely with the sympathetic playing of violinist Stefan Hersh. The true star was seated behind the orchestra and standing soloists – David Schrader. The first movement of the concerto has a full blown cadenza for solo harpsichord, with notes just spilling from the page. Schrader dove into that section with control and complete mastery. There was not a second’s hesitation as he moved from one set of hand manipulations to another. The audience, including myself, was left stunned by his virtuosity. The rest of the concerto, proceeded flawlessly.

Such a fantastic ending made the whole concert seem like a major event, and left me looking forward to subsequent performances in the next Bach Week Festival. Those performances can’t happen without the community’s support, which is why Richard Webster has put together a benefit concert in October called Bach-tober Fest. He is constantly trying to keep the festival visible, going so far as running in Chicago’s famous Marathon dressed as the master composer himself. Let us all hope it works so that the Chicagoland area can continue to enjoy stellar performances of Bach the way it is supposed to be heard.