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CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW
October 21, 2005
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By Anna Carol Dudley
Suzanne Elder Wallace began her musical directorship of the California
Bach Society with a thoughtfully programmed concert Friday night at St. Mark's
Episcopal Church in Berkeley. The program began with three motets
performed a cappella: two by J.S. Bach's second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach, and
J.S. Bach's Lobet den Herrn (Praise the Lord); continued with Dietrich
Buxtehude's Cantate Domino (Sing to the Lord) accompanied by
harpsichord-cello continuo; and culminated in J.S. Bach's Cantata 150,
Nach dich, Herr, verlanget mich (I long for you, Lord) with two violins and bassoon added to the continuo.
There is some scholarly controversy about the authorship of Cantata 150.
Bach was an admirer of Buxtehude, and some scholars hear Buxtehude's
influence in this earliest of Bach's cantatas while others suspect it
may have been written by Buxtehude himself. Wallace attributes it to Bach
and, by juxtaposing it with a piece by Buxtehude, made a convincing argument
for her view. From the opening notes of this cantata's sinfonia, through the
first dramatic entrance of the bass singers, and on to the expressive
power of the closing passacaglia, this is unmistakably Bach, and the chorus
did it full justice.
The California Bach Society has undergone many changes since its
founding years ago as a large community chorus. Successive music directors have
reshaped it, and Wallace has inherited a small group, strong and well
blended in the soprano and alto sections and dangerously undermanned in
tenor and bass. The men are excellent singers, able to surmount some but
not all of the problems of balancing two basses and three tenors against six
sopranos and six altos, but one hates to think what will happen if a
bass gets the flu. Judging by this performance, Wallace is off to a good
start and should be able to recruit more singers. The choral sound is both
pure in tuning and colorful in expression — no mean feat.
The concert began with a coup de théātre: a performance of John Ludwig
Bach's polychoral motet, Das ist meine Freude (That is my joy), sung
by the chorus in front of the audience and a solo quartet at the back.
Soloists for the evening — Ruth Escher, Elisabeth Eliassen, Daniel Hutchings and Jeff Fields — were heard to best advantage in this opening piece.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the
University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University, lecturer emerita and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
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