One group that has always impressed me is The Bach Players, directed (if that is the right word) with commendable reticence by violinist Nicolette Moonen. Their concerts always strike me as a gathering of friends, on which the audience eavesdrops, an atmosphere that produces consistent outstandingly musical performances. They have found a new London base at St John’s Downshire Hill where they continue to explore the lesser-known byways of the repertoire, this time with two Bach cantatas for the 16th Sunday after Trinity (‘Komm, du süsse Todestunde’ and ‘Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende’), three contrapuncti from the Art of Fugue and three short works by Rosenmüller. The four singers and eight players (all of whom were given detailed biographies in the programme – a further reflection on the nature of the group) were all on top form, but special mention must go to the four singers (Angharrad Gruffyd Jones, Sally Bruce-Payne, Nicholas Mulroy and Peter Harvey) and players Rodolfo Richter, Catherine Latham, James Eastaway and Silas Standage.
Andrew Benson-Wilson
The Victorians were to blame for bringing all the tinsel and trappings into Christmas. Back in the Baroque, none of those fripperies applied. The Bach Players – essentially a string quintet with organ, joined by soprano and bass – went back to basics last night, travelling from Leipzig to Italy and back to Bach again.
It was a refreshing journey, even with the odd familiar staging-post: Bach’s Air in D, neatly pointed, and Corelli’s ‘Christmas’ concerto framed the first half. Roderick Williams, one of our most versatile baritones, brought a smooth line to an already lilting ‘Welcome, precious treasure’ from Bach’s Cantata no.36. Angharad Gruffydd Jones, already a veteran of oratorio, harnessed her tone to the Baroque idiom with nimble musicality … In the Corelli the strings pointed the way, phrasing like singers and with impeccable ensemble. Awe and excitement in equal measure at the events in Bethlehem were almost tangible.
Tunder’s ‘Wachet auf!’ brought effective soprano variations on the familiar Lutheran tune. A spirit of suppressed expectation suffused Rosenmüller’s ‘Sonata settima’, effectively a string quartet, where the tricky chromatics were tightly tuned.
Cantata no. 57, Bach’s observance of the feast of Stephen, a dialogue between Christ and the Soul, brought the climax, a thrilling aria which Williams delivered with the utmost clarity. Who needs fripperies when the music is this good?
Martin Dreyer
… Finally, as a digestive after a weekend of heavy feasting, came The Bach Players performing extracts from the Art of Fugue. This was an excellent example of just how subtle and expressive string playing can be. This was music making of the highest order, technically and musically, notably in the players’ ability to explore beyond the notes, drawing out apparently hidden gems within such a well-loved work. It was a delight to watch the obvious enjoyment of the second violin and viola at their little riffs towards the end of Contrapunctus III, for example. The concluding piece (Contrapunctus XI) was given a particularly powerful reading, exposing both its hesitancy and its contrasting confidence. A delightful way to end the 2004 Showcase.
Andrew Benson-Wilson
As their name implies, The Bach Players specialise in the performance of J.S. Bach, and their concert (St James Piccadilly, 5 March) included three Lenten cantatas and movements from the Art of Fugue. This cooperative group are not heard that often, but always manage to come up with the goods when they do appear – as reflected in the impressively sizeable audience. Instrumentally they play with a mellow and warm string tone and with a degree of delicacy and sensitivity that, sadly, seems to be going out of fashion nowadays. The opening cantata, ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’, was blessed by the sumptuous contralto voice of Hilary Summers. She merged her early long-held note almost imperceptibly with the strings – the first of many lovely moments. Her extraordinary voice, venturing well into a tenor register at times, was ideal for the gentle menace of Bach’s opening aria. The build-up of power at the end of the central recitative was also extremely well done, as were the chromatic lines of the concluding aria. Hilary was joined by Gillian Keith, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey and Catherine Latham (recorder) for ‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’, almost a mini St John Passion with its succession of very personal arias and minimal recitative. Peter Harvey overcame the rather four-square pulse of ‘Starkes Lieben’ by the fluidity of his voice, aided by the articulation of the instrumentalists. One very attractive aspect of The Bach Players is their collective structure – if anybody was giving directions it was done so subtly that it was barely noticeable. Although it is not easy to describe, I do sense a musical difference in these sorts of performances over the strongly conducted and directed variety – I don’t think musicians are alone in working better within a cohesive group of like-minded individuals.
Andrew Benson-Wilson
Although many of his finest cantatas, like the Passions, date from Bach’s quarter-century at St Thomas’s, Leipzig (1723–50), and his organ music mostly predates the move, this rule is not absolute. To make the point, the Bach Players, now in their ninth year, brought together three early cantatas for their Lenten concert at Birmingham University’s Barber Institute. So early were these cantatas that the last heard, Bach’s Easter Cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’, dates from the close of his Arnstadt period (1703–07), when Bach was 22 and still auditioning for his brief stay in Mühlhausen. ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’, for alto and strings, has a special association: it is one of Alfred Deller’s loveliest solo recordings, and has subsequently been recorded by both Andreas Scholl and James Bowman. To rival such an impeccable trio of chaps might have seemed an uphill struggle for the Bach Players’ alto, Hilary Summers; but rival them she did. Georg Christian Lehms’s text ‘Stand firm against sin or its poison will grab you: vile transgression, glittering gold on the outside, is a whitewashed grave, like the apples of Sodom’ takes penitential grimness to a new plane. Miss Summers delivering it puts one in mind of a strict prep-school matron; but her tones are exquisite.
‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’, a Palm Sunday cantata from 1714, has four soloists (five, if we include Catherine Latham’s terrific Baroque recorder-playing). It is framed by two glorious welcome choruses, which were sung with a subtle feel for rubato. The tricky tenor aria ‘Jesus, lass durch Wohl und Weh’, sung by Charles Daniels with some magical Baroque cello work from Alison McGillivray, positively spangled. Despite a smidgeon of rocky string tuning in Peter Harvey’s noble bass aria ‘Starkes Lieben’, these strings players confirmed their credentials: many are members of Europe’s outstanding period-instrument bands; perhaps this ensemble – in time – will become another. Four of them wove a stringy spell with four movements from Bach’s the Art of Fugue. Their skills fused gloriously for ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’, where scamperings of cello and deft bass (Elizabeth Bradley), and some beautifully reticent, spicily registered organ continuo from Silas Standage worked wonders. The physical separation of the alto cantus firmus from the rest (as with Gillian Keith’s gleaming soprano earlier) helped clarity; one chirruping soprano–tenor duet was immense fun. Bach’s libretti makes use of vivid onomatopoeia: ‘Der Würger’ (‘Death the Strangler’) sounds like an escapee from Wagner’s Ring. The end was hope in store: ‘We eat and live on the true bread of Easter’.
Roderic Dunnett
More than a quarter of a millennium since the composer’s death, there are still riches galore to be mined in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Not so long ago the idea of Bach in ‘period’ performance would evoke precious, hair-shirt readings of inverse communicative returns; nothing could be further from the truth in last night’s fresh, lively presentations from the personable and youthful Bach Players.
A sequence of Lenten cantatas began with ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’ and its amazingly discordant opening. Darkness and dissonance continue against a pale Vivaldian backcloth, demanding from the alto soloist highly attuned responses of colour and projection. In Hilary Summers it found a protagonist of unique qualities: tones of countertenor masculinity in the lowest range and of a Kathleen Ferrier-like warmth higher up, and a strength of breath-control akin to the seamless bowing of a viol.
Summers was joined by soprano Gillian Keith, tenor Charles Daniels and bass Peter Harvey for ‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’. Here the buoyant, airy articulation of a tiny instrumental complement did full justice to Bach’s gorgeous scoring, particularly in the opening duet between recorder (the remarkable Catherine Latham) and violin over pizzicato lower strings.
The opening four movements of the Art of Fugue, music of a cosmic otherworldliness, allowed the instrumentalists to demonstrate further their shapely, well-defined qualities before ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ reunited all four engaging soloists, Gillian Keith in particular projecting a beautifully ethereal line.
Christopher Morley
Nicht alles besser, aber vieles anders machen: so, in Umkehrung des bekannten Schlagworts, ist das Bestreben heutiger ‘historischer’ Aufführungspraxis. Kleine Besetzungen eröffnen bei Bachs Passionen neue Aspekte. Es ist, als sei eine Kathedrale auf eine Dorfkirche reduziert. Aber gerade deren schlichter Ernst kann Große haben.
Bei der Johannes-Passion erscheint die Beschränkung auf wenige Mitwirkende als besonders heikel. Von der lapidaren Eingangs-Anrufung des ‘Herr!’ bis zum lyrischen Ausklang durchwaltet das Werk, der biblischen Textvorlage entsprechend, ein Geist der Erhabenheit, der nicht pietistisch vergemütlicht werden darf. Durchaus bemerkenswert, wie The Bach Players hier die Balance gelingt. Im Kammermusiksaal kommt einem beinahe jeder von ihnen persönlich nahe. Aber sie wahren stilsicher Distanz. Sie beeindrucken durch expressiven Vortrag, doch wollen sie niemanden machtvoll überwältigen. Dafür dankte das Auditorium den Londoner Gästen bei ihrem Berliner Debüt anläßlich der Eröffnung der Bach-Tage stürmisch.
Im Orchester ein Dutzend Spieler mit alten Instrumenten. Ein behutsames Orgelpositiv. Und ganze zehn Sängerinnen und Sänger: ein Chor, der keineswegs immer ‘schon’ zusammenklingt, dessen Mitglieder aber im Wechsel auch sämtliche großen und kleinen Soloaufgaben bravour’s wahrnehmen. Großartig weich und intensiv der Evangelist Mark Padmore. Am Cembalo dirigiert der junge Gary Cooper (sehr unähnlich seinem Namensvetter). Insgesamt 25 Mitwirkende, mehr nicht. In strengem Rahmen entfalten sie die Vielgestaltigkeit und Vielfarbigkeit Bachscher Musik ganz ungezwungen.
v.l.
One of the most promising new groups over the last few years has been the Bach Players, founded in 1996 and dedicated to the music of Bach. A London highlight has been their exploration of Bach cantatas, the latest of which featured Advent cantatas: two on ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’ and ‘Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn’ (St John’s Wood Parish Church, 28 November). It is wonderful to experience a group that has no obvious director, but coordinates its entries from within, usually by the merest intake of breath. The resulting cohesion is aural as well as visual, producing a performance of outstanding integrity and emotional strength. The four excellent singers, Rachel Elliott, Sally Bruce-Payne, Mark Padmore and Thomas Guthrie, were on fine form, as were the key players, Nicolette Moonen (violin), James Eastaway (oboe) and Richard Campbell (cello). An inspiring concert by a group that deserves success in its important chosen repertoire.
Schon zu Beginn feierten die Bachtage ihren ersten Hohepunkt. The Bach Players aus London gaben ihr Deutschland-Debüt: ein junges, vor drei Jahren gegründetes Ensemble, das sich ganz auf den Thomaskantor spezialisiert hat. Die vorzüglichen Musiker um den am Cembalo sitzenden Gary Cooper beherzigten das diesjährige Motto ‘Das Neue im Alten’ und boten die Johannes-Passion in einer Version, die man so gut wie nie zu hören bekommt. Wirklich neu ist sie aber nicht. Man weiß längst, daß der Praktiker Bach alle seine Passionen als ‘Work in progress’, also je nach Umständen als veründerbare Gebilde behandelt hat.
Von den insgesamt fünf nachweisbaren Fassungen der Johannes-Passion enthält die aus dem Jahre 1749 im Vergleich zur wohlvertrauten Gestalt nicht besonderes zahlreiche Änderungen. Lediglich drei Arien haben einen anderen Text. Hier und da hat Bach Notenzusätze gemacht, andere Instrumentenkombinationen vorgeschrieben. Wie im Kleinformat angelegt, erschien die Wiedergabe der ziemlich unbekannten Fassung. Ein 14-köpfiges Mini-Orchester, dazu ein 10-köpfiger Chor, vom Evangelisten wurden die Solopartien einfach von den Chormitgliedern ubemommen.
Doch diese Reduktion klang ungewohnt hell, durchsichtig und klar, und das in gefährlich zügigem Tempo. Eine Passion gleichsam im Schnellgang, bei der zum Gluck nie forciert und gehetzt wurde. Die hervorragend geschmeidig begleitenden Bach Players, der zwar namenlose, aber gleichwohl ausgezeichnete Chor, aus dem Peter Harvey (Christus) und Matthew Brooks (Pilatus) vor allem hervorragten, sowie Mark Padmore (Evangelist) hielten stets die Balance. Historisches Bewußtsein, Notentreue und Aussagekraft des Werkes lassen sich durchaus vereinen.
W.Sch.
The Bach Players, formed early in 1996, are dedicated to the performance of their eponymous composer. They presented wonderfully musical performances of three cantatas (56, 57, 58), with Rachel Elliott and Thomas Guthrie as soloists, and the harpsichord concerto in F (BWV 1057) at St John’s Wood Parish Church on Sunday 10 May. Notwithstanding their aim of remaining faithful to Bach’s original intentions, they seemed refreshingly uninhibited in exploring the emotional and romantic depths inherent in Bach’s music. Their singing and playing went beyond scholarly intensity and technical virtuosity to that hard-to-define coalescence that makes for musical performance of the highest standard. Two examples came in the opening cantata ‘Selig ist der Mann’, a dialogue between the Soul and Jesus. Rachel Elliott’s scrunchingly exquisite aria ‘Ich wünschte mir den Tod’ was a lovely demonstration of this blending of baroque logic with romantic depth of feeling. Whilst retaining an entirely convincing vocal style, she was not afraid to imbue the music with an intensity of emotional expression. Particularly effective was the musical and spiritual sense she made of the da capo, avoiding the rather too frequent ‘you’ve heard this bit before’ approach. Thomas Guthrie’s response as Vox Christi was equally emotive – he seems to become possessed by the part he is singing. The mood of the music and the underlying emotion pervades all of his being and he communicates this directly to the listener through vocal texture, posture and facial expressiveness. Two very talented singers! The instrumental support was first class, with some particularly attractive playing by the continuo cellist, Alison McGillivray, and the oboists, Catherine Latham and James Eastaway. The concerto (Brandenburg 4 in Bach’s harpsichord transcription) was given a stunning performance by all players, particularly by Gary Cooper in an outstanding display of playing in which technical virtuosity and emotional strength never overpowered the musical impulse of the piece. The church is next to Lord’s Cricket ground, so cricket lovers would have appreciated the platform layout for the concerto, with the cellist at the bowling end of the harpsichord, and the rest of the players gathered like an array of slip fielders behind the batsman seated at the harpsichord.
Andrew Benson-Wilson