2009-2010 Concert Season Preview

The Bach Ensemble’s Eighth Season of Concerts promises to Exalt, Enlighten and Amuse!
For ticketing information, please see Online Ticket Orders.

Sunday, December 20, 2009 - “Holiday Gavotte: Songs of the Nativity”
Moorings Presbyterian Church, Naples, Florida – 3:00 pm

The Bach Ensemble’s traditional holiday concert, “Holiday Gavotte: Songs of the Nativity” will be held at 3:00 on December 20, 2009 at Moorings Presbyterian Church in Naples.  The program begins with a Baroque gem from our namesake, J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 142.  Sung in German, Uns ist ein Kind Geboren celebrates “A Child is Born to Us”, ending with a jubilant “Alleluia”.

In the second section of the program, Randall Thompson’s Glory to God in the Highest will set the stage for a motet by Poulenc: Videntes stellam (Seeing the Star).  The highlight of the concert will be selections from Songs of the Nativity by Pulitzer prize-winning composer John La Montaine.  This song cycle, though contemporary, is based to a large extent on ancient carols and folk songs.

The final section of the concert showcases enjoyable arrangements of traditional Christmas carols, beginning with John Gardner’s Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day, with its capricious rhythm and lively piano accompaniment.  Audience participation will be encouraged on familiar carols, to inspire all with holiday spirit!

Thursday, February 18, 2010 – “Winter Sarabande: Come Let Us Sing”
Moorings Presbyterian Church, Naples, Florida – 7:00 pm

The concert at 7:00 Thursday evening, February 18, 2010 will be our most momentous of the season.  Like the Holiday concert, “Winter Sarabande: Come Let Us Sing” will be held in the lovely and acoustically superb sanctuary of Moorings Presbyterian Church. 

The program will begin with J.S. Bach’s Mass in A, a Lutheran-style Mass consisting only of the “Kyrie” and “Gloria” sections of the liturgy.  Following this choral masterpiece, The Bach Ensemble will welcome special guest artist Toby Blumenthal, who will perform a piano concerto with our chamber orchestra.

Mendelssohn’s Psalm 95: O Come Let Us Sing, to be performed by The Bach Ensemble and soloists in German, will form the centerpiece of the program. 

Closing the concert will be G.F. Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem: “Blessed are they that considereth the poor”.  Handel was a Governor and benefactor of the Foundling Hospital, and his annual performances there provided vital sources of income, to maintain and educate abandoned children.  Music-lovers will undoubtedly recognize the final movement of the piece, which is the “Hallelujah Chorus” from the composer’s oratorio Messiah.

Saturday, April 17, 2010 – “Spring Gigue: Out of the BACHS!"
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Marco Island , Florida – 7:00 pm

Our light-hearted Spring Program begins with one of J.S. Bach’s few secular cantatas, the Coffee Cantata. In a satirical commentary, the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to coffee, which was a pressing social issue in 18th century Leipzig, where the work was premiered.  The cantata will be performed in English with choir and soloists.

In the second part of the program, The Bach Ensemble will perform three Part Songs and three Opera Choruses.  “Part Songs” gained popularity in England in the nineteenth century with the growth of choral societies.  Our program will include one Part Song by Schubert, one by Schumann, and one by Brahms.  The Opera Choruses to be performed include “The Neighbor’s Chorus” from Offenbach’s comic opera Lo Jolie Parfumeuse, “Va, Pensiero” (often called the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”) from Verdi’s opera Nabucco, and the frenetic “Dance, A Cachucha, Fandango, Bolero” from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.

Concluding this madcap program will be a collection of “greatest hits” from composer P.D.Q. Bach, reputedly the last (and least) offspring of the great J.S. Bach.  P.D.Q. Bach once said that his illustrious father gave him no training in music whatsoever, and it is one of the few things he said that we can believe without reservation.  But while the son’s musical compositions lack the High Baroque grandeur of his famous father, today’s audiences will still appreciate the droll lyrics of his works.  Our program will include P.D.Q. Bach’s madrigal My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth, selections from the Ground Rounds, and several movements from the oratorio The Seasonings.