Bach is Back!
by
Lyn Bronson
Maestro Bruno Weil
The weather cooperated most handsomely for opening night of
the 2007 Carmel Bach Festival. Instead of shivering in damp fog, as we have done
many times in the past, the weather on this occasion was warm and balmy.
Everything looked appropriately festive as guests in the pre-concert reception
sipped champagne and sampled sweets while listening to the brass choir in the
courtyard. The balminess of the weather continued inside Sunset Center where a
capacity audience created enough body heat to raise the temperature almost
uncomfortably for us, and probably even more for so the performers on stage
under the powerful lights. The walls of Sunset Center’s stage were illuminated
with kaleidoscopic washes of color, over which was the projection panel used for
the super titles, and, incidentally, they were so well done I was able to read
them even without my glasses.
As always during the Festival, we see on stage many
familiar faces and a few new ones. The same could be said for the music heard in
these programs, for the Festival always provides an interesting mix of the
familiar and the unfamiliar. This opening concert contained Bach’s Cantatas, BWV
70 and 110, the Concerto for Harpsichord, two slightly more contemporary works
by Arvo Pärt and Max Reger, plus the Bach Suite No. 4 in D Major.
By the end of the evening the stage was really crowded as
the hordes on stage included conductor Bruno Weil, the Festival Orchestra,
soloists, the Chorale, the Chorus, and the Youth Chorus. The two Cantatas on the
program made a powerful effect, and especially the Cantata BWV 110 in which the
combined forces of the three choirs were simply magnificent. To hear this many
voices so well coordinated in difficult passages requiring considerable agility,
rhythmic finesse and subtle dynamic control was indeed impressive and a moving
testament to the fine choral directing skills of Andrew Megill and John Koza.
The fine soloists heard on this occasion were soprano
Kendra Colton, mezzo Sally-Anne Russell, tenors Ben Butterfield and Alan
Bennett, bass baritone Michael Dean and bass Sanford Sylvan. The commanding
presence of Sanford Sylvan was much in evidence during the evening, and tenor
Alan Bennett was impressive in his aria
Ihr Gedanken und ihr Sinnen (Your thoughts and musings) with a lovely flute
duo obbligato from Robin Carlson Peery and Dawn Walker. Also impressive was
mezzo Sally-Anne Russell’s aria Ach Herr,
was ist ein Menschenkind (Ah, Lord, what is a human being) with a great oboe
obbligato solo by Roger Cole.
It is well known that Maestro Weil favors brisk tempos, and
this tendency has resulted in many exciting moments during previous festivals,
although there was one orchestral interlude last night where the tempo was so
fast for the woodwinds it caused a bit of a scramble.
Andrew Arthur performed the Bach Concerto for Harpsichord
in A Major, BWV 1055, with four string players from the Festival Orchestra lead
by Libby Wallfisch. Although it was difficult, even with such a reduced string
ensemble, to hear the harpsichord, Arthur’s fine musicianship and refined sense
of style triumphed, especially in the lovely
Adagio slow movement, where his
tasteful ornamentation and embellishment were superb.
At the end of the first half of the concert the audience
was totally confused as to what had happened on stage. We heard an interesting
composition by Arvo Pärt, Collage űber
B-A-C-H, consisting of three sections,
Toccata, Sarabande and
Ricercare. This turned out to be a very absorbing piece of music, always
changing color and alternating styles from spooky other worldly sounds to some
lovely more conventional sounds.
Its ending was so conventional, I thought it might have carried eclecticism a
bit far. The piece ended abruptly, and
the house lights came on. The audience was obviously puzzled. Finally, someone
had to come out on stage and announce that we had arrived at intermission.
What had happened was that instead of
making an obvious ending of the work by Arvo Pärt and encouraging applause, Weil
had simply gone on to the Max Reger work with no interruption.
We should hope that next week Mr. Weil arranges for a claque in the
audience to applaud at the end of the Arvo Pärt work, for “it’s not nice to fool
Mother Nature” (I mean, the audience).
So, except for this minor mishap, everything went
splendidly, and it was a happy audience, still much amused by the wonderful
laughing chorus, Unser Mund sei voll
Lachens (May our mouths be full of laughter), that exited Sunset Center at
the end of the opening concert.
