February 6, 2023

Yesterday was a first for me…my first time conducting cantatas of J.S. Bach. That might seem surprising, but given the nature of the music it is rare for such works to show up in the regular fare of the modern symphony orchestra, an ensemble that had not yet been invented in Johann’s time. Yes, there are “orchestras” in his cantatas, but they tend to be small and often have an unusual instrumentation. The Cantata BWV 106 that we did yesterday, for example, doesn’t use any violins. It was an orchestra of violas, cellos, bass and two flutes…such interesting colors and atmosphere created by that combination. We also performed BWV 196, which employs a string orchestra.
 
For conductors of my generation who are not Baroque specialists, Bach just doesn’t come across our desks often, aside from a Brandenburg here and there, or maybe an orchestral suite. Early in my career, when the period performance practice movement was really gaining momentum, I felt like we should, for the most part, leave this repertoire to the early music folks, and just focus on music written for our modern instruments and practices.
 
I think things have changed. For decades now, today’s performing musicians have all been listening to and admiring the extraordinary work being done by the period bands, and we, as modern instrument performers, have that period instrument style so firmly in our collective ears that we more easily and intuitively can adapt those concepts to modern instrument playing. I noticed immediately in our rehearsal last week how quickly the players came into the Baroque realm, and how a once elusive style seemed much closer to our grasp.
 
The gloriousness of this music deserves mention. Yes, we all know Bach was great, one of the “Three B’s” and all that, but it’s bigger than that. The more one dives in to his music, the more his genius and inspiration is revealed. His expressive language is simply unparalleled in his era. IMHO, even the great Handel doesn’t approach Bach’s profundity and expressive nuance. The process of learning these two cantatas was rather mind blowing for me. Two such masterpieces they are, and to think he cranked those out nearly every week of his career for church services. By the way, his congregation had no idea that they were in the presence of a GOAT…he was just another church musician to them.
 
This concert was Lansing Symphony’s “Winterlude”, a program in between our standard masterworks and played in Lansing’s beautiful Episcopal Church downtown rather than our usual Wharton Center. The concept apparently resonated with the community as we had a sold-out venue.  
 
Along with the Bach, we also did two string symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn, born nearly 60 years after Bach’s death, was partly responsible for a resurgence of interest in Bach’s music which had fallen out of fashion. Bach’s influence is felt strongly in these two works written by the 12-year-old Felix. Mendelssohn’s love of the master was conspicuously represented by the melodic spelling of Bach’s name—the notes B-flat-A-C-B-natural in the 14th bar of the b-minor symphony. To really take this into the weeds, I’ll share that “14” is a favorite number of Bach’s as it was the numeric equivalent of the sum of the alphabetic placement of the letters of his name (A=1, B=2, C=3, H=8…all adds up to 14)…but I digress. The bottom line, it was a great pleasure to be part of this special concert!
 
Next up for me, “Music of the 80’s”…the 1980’s that is, Lansing Symphony Pops. Should be fun!
 
NEXT UP
 
Lansing Symphony Orchestra Pops Concert
Music of the 80’s
Wharton Center for the Performing Arts
February 11, 2023 7:30 p.m.
 
 
#Bach #Bachcantata #Lansingsymphony