Bach Aria Soloists (violin, Elizabeth Suh Lane; harpsichord, Elisa Williams Bickers; soprano, Sarah Tannehill Anderson) performing during “Bach Unlocked” with guest cellist Paula Kosower. Credit: Bach Aria Soloists
Bach Aria Soloists, currently celebrating its 25th season, gave tribute to their namesake composer with an all Johann Sebastian Bach concert in “Bach Unlocked” on Friday evening.
The performance at Village Presbyterian Church included a range of Bach’s intricate, moving music and commentary about the man and his work by preeminent scholar Dr. Christoph Wolff, who taught at Harvard University for nearly four decades (and other institutions before that) and has written a number of books on music history, four about Bach himself.
More than 250 years after his death, Bach is regarded as a master of the Baroque era and his music delights, challenges, and surprises. And 25 years ago, violinist and BAS artistic director Elizabeth Suh Lane founded the group to bring more Bach to Kansas City audiences.
The concert opened and closed with a celebration of Bach’s primary instrument: the organ. Elisa Williams Bickers performed on Village Church’s Opus 22 pipe organ and what an opening performance it was, starting from the attention grabbing statement of the Toccata from Bach’s Toccata, Adagio, Fugue in C dur, BWV 564, and ending with a pew-rumbling section. Bickers is one of the region’s premier organists, demonstrated in this excellent performance. Because of the organ’s prominence in the sanctuary, viewers could also appreciate the challenging pedal work that Bickers presented with dexterity.
Suh Lane introduced Wolff, for what was his third appearance with BAS over the years, and he offered an amusing and insightful character sketch of the composer, some of his background growing up as a curious prodigy in a highly musical family, and his career as a performer, church musician, composer, and educator, stories that helped illuminate who Bach was and how his music took shape over time.
The rest of the musicians—soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson and guest cellist Paula Kosower—joined Suh Lane and Bickers for a lovely rendition of “Bereite Dir, Jesus, noch itzo die Bahn,” from Cantata Herza und Mund, BWV 147. Later in the program, Anderson was featured on “Heil und Segen,” from Cantata Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, BWV 120, and “Ich bin vergnügt in meinem Leiden,” from Cantata Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 58, demonstrating Bach’s range in vocal writing during his early years in Leipzig, where he lived until his death in 1750.
Sans Anderson, they performed two movements from Bach’s Sonata in C moll for Violin & Klavier, BWV 1017, showpieces for Suh Lane, with the measured and restrained Largo and the spirited, exuberant Allegro.
Wolff spoke at length about Bach, offering interesting anecdotes and contextualizing the musical choices, not just the whens and wheres, but the whos and whys that influenced Bach’s creative output. While impossible to distill all he knows about Bach’s life and work into a single program, he nevertheless gave a thoughtful and thorough talk that undoubtedly improved the audience’s general appreciation for Bach.
BAS constructed a delicious suite of pieces from favorites of Bach’s works for solo instruments. Suh Lane gave a flashy rendition of the Preludio from Partita No. 3 for unaccompanied violin in E, getting a little (tastefully) wild at the end; Bickers, again, wowed us with her Gavotte from French Suite No. 5 in G, on harpsichord, and cellist Kosower performed two works from Cello Suite No. 3 in C, first the somber Sarabande, and then the unabating Gigue, with a chocolatey dark sound and rounded phrasing.
The concert concluded with Bickers again at the organ, a last hurrah in this Bach celebration. Performing the fanciful “Pièce d’Orgue” BWV 572, Bickers’s touches of flare added to the virtuosity, with a hand gesture right before she settled into the pedal section and the snap of a page turn after the attention grabbing last chord of the Gravement section, prefacing a particularly flamboyant series of runs. It was quite the send off, and the audience was immediately on their feet for the bows.
Reviewed Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Bach Aria Soloists performed “Bach Unlocked” at Village Presbyterian Church in Mission, KS. For more information visit www.bachariasoloists.com.
