Above and featured: Madeleine Easton and Bach Akademie perform one of three concerts at City Recital Hall. Photo credit: Noni Carroll.
If Bach was a bridegroom offering us joy and hope then Bach Akademie Australia could be said to open up a perfectly prepared hall in which his music is brought passionately to life.
This newer musical institution has been working very hard to celebrate Bach in our country. Particularly joyous are its concerts for choir and orchestra. The inimitable blend of expert voices, instrumentalists and the vision and verité of joyous director Madeleine Easton is a winner every time.
And how better to celebrate Bach’s huge output of compact masterpieces, the sacred cantatas, than with no less than three of them plus more music on the same programme.
To celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of Bach’s appointment to the post of Cantor at St Thomas’ in Leipzig, Bach Akademie Australia gave us a beautiful snapshot of his some 300 cantatas composed there from 1723 til his death.
These are brilliant sound worlds and clever, colourful narratives with accessible and svelte switches between chorus, solos and duets. The calibre of early music vocal and instrumentalists taking the opportunity to work with Madeleine Easton on these works was high.
This celebration of Bach’s monthly mini masterpieces for church use drew on vivid examples from right across the massive output. BWV 78, Jesu, der du meine Seele gave a snapshot of pain and suffering. Here the extended tenor recitatives were stunningly delivered by Timothy Reynolds, elaborating on the depth of human sin.
This work also featured the virtuosity of soprano and alto soloists, Anna Sandstrom and Stephanie Dillon in intricate duet, interlocking as they sang of sinners rushing to Jesus for redemption in Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten.
Moving throughout the BWV in the concert programme, but not exactly in chronological order, we shared in the joy and beautiful construction of Cantata BWV 110 – Unser Mund sei voll Lachens. This beautiful example of praise featured characters with personal rejoicing, in three arias motivating humans to ponder God’s glory.
These urgent testimonies were preached in nicely shaped arcs. There was considered presentation of the dramatic poetry by tenor Timothy Reynolds, alto Hannah Fraser and bass Andrew O’Connor. The gloria and celebration of peace in seamless duet by soprano Susannah Lawergren which preceded the bass call to devout arms and to have instruments at the ready was a successful colour in the revival of this work.
It was however, Cantata 140 Wachet auf ruft uns di Stimme which brought the heavenly castle and the City Recital Hall house down in a triumphant dramatic recreation of the heavenly Bridegroom coming to restore joy.
This stellar, loved cantata was in this concert well-paced and delivered with an exemplary instrumental and vocal finesse. The rich visual imagery of marriage, yearning for happiness and urgently waiting was well harnessed by Madeleine Easton. Her interpretation featured a consistently thorough and gentle exposition of each step in this work’s well-known and much-loved journey.
Especially excellent in this cantata’s characterisation and storytelling was the tight focus displayed in the stirring opening featuring the soaring Lutheran hymn tune as cantus firmus. The required delicate blend between voices and instrumental shapes plus engaging pulse was achieved excellently in the space by Easton and her eager forces.
The infectious joy in producing Bach’s intricate sonic tapestry was obvious on the faces of the Bach Akademians involved as they followed the composer’s nicely decorated path in this work.
Particularly poignant was the tone colour and firm declamation of the accompanied tenor recitative ‘Er kommt’ in the hands of orchestra and vocalist Daniel Walker.
Breathtaking dramatic aptitude and undulating vocal exchanges from a very impressive Susannah Lawergren (soprano) and Andrew O’Connor (bass)as the Soul and Jesus. Their duets ‘Wenn kommst du, mein Heil?’ and ‘Mein Freund ist mein’ were incredibly touching, especially with the bass positioned at a distance during the latter to depict the advancing Saviour.
The pair’s combination made spirited dialogue and fine work of the challenges in Bach’s vocal music during this cantata. Their characterisation was gilded by Andrew Master’s oboe and also the fit violin of Julia Fredersdorff.
As well as these glistening gems from the cantata repertoire, the choir plus continuo gifted us a stunning version of BMV 255 – Singet dem Herrn which reminded us of Bach’s expertise in text setting, choral writing of various textures and flexibilty of format for celebration of church and biblical ideas.
The whole event began with instrumental music in the form of a mellifluous but reverent Chorale Prelude In Dulci Jublio.. This moment’s stillness was a perfect beginning and more evidence of the variety of compositions in Bach’s music magnified the Lord and his post in Leipzig’s Castle of Heaven.