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.