San Francisco Classical Voice

The California Bach Society's presentation of "A Feast of the Ascension," a concert of church music of J. S. Bach for the last event of the Easter season, was brilliantly conceived and masterfully prepared by fine performers. In the case of the Berkeley performance that I attended, unfortunately, it was a concert encumbered with an unsolved acoustical problem.

Warren Stewart was doing what he does so well: recreating musical events of the past to both entertain and inform his audiences. On this occasion he presented a program that was appropriate to the Easter season, illustrative of the historical kind of liturgical musical event he seeks to represent, and representative of Bach's very best music, in this jubilee year, marking the 250th anniversary of the his death.

The elements of the program fit together well, musically and historically. A Bach organ prelude was followed by an Alleluia by the Slovene Jacobus Gallus (Jakob Handl), a piece known to have been in the Leipzig Thomaskirche repertoire until the 18th century. It was also composed for the same occasion of the church year -- the Ascension of Christ-- as Cantata 21 and is in the same A major tonality as the Mass, which followed without pause.

The A Major Mass is one of Bach's "little" masses, which are not performed often and are thought by many to be early works. In fact, Bach assembled these "parody" masses in the 1740s, a time when he was collecting his best material, it is thought, for posterity. Calling for four soloists, two flutes, and string orchestra, it is quite secular in tone, drawing on Italian operatic style, including a duet between Jesus and the Soul, which might have struck the most conservative Leipzig Lutherans as worldly to the point of profanity.

Whereas the Mass in A is resolutely upbeat and positive in tone, Cantata 21 presents a darker side: "My heart is filled with anguish." The latter mode fits better with Bach's persona, a man who viewed life as a vale of struggle and tears to be alleviated only by redemption after death. Indeed the music is most affecting and beautiful. This cantata has often been compared to the great Passions and the B Minor Mass.

Cantata 21 dates from 1713 in Weimar, when Bach was applying for a position in the ducal chapel. Performances were repeated multiple times, always at Easter but also at key points in his career: as an audition piece for Weimar, again the following year when he had attained the title of Konzertmeister, when he auditioned in Hamburg for the great Reincken, and in 1724 at his first Easter in Leipzig. Clearly Bach regarded Cantata 21 as reflecting his best work.

The chorus of the California Bach Society acquitted themselves admirably, singing with passion, accuracy, and lovely tone. Warren Stewart enlisted fine talent to stand with the choir. Two of the soloists were new to me: tenor Brian Staufenbiel sang with style and conviction, a fine Bach tenor. Alto Ken Fitch was a revelation, presenting an alto voice quite unlike any I have experienced -- clear, colorful, and distinctly noneffeminate. I am surprised we have not heard him before. I hope we will again soon. Bass Hugh Davies is a fine professional singer who bore up well in the difficult acoustical conditions. Ruth Escher's soprano voice was in the best form I have heard it, showing a clear variety of tone, beautiful color, and persuasive emotive force. The orchestra was excellent -- fine players well known to any devotee of authentic instrument performances.

The fly in the ointment was the potent combination of problematic acoustics and insufficient rehearsal in that environment. The apse of St Mark's is elevated by three steps and enfolded by a low barrel-vaulted ceiling. From my seat, it was apparent that instruments near the front of the "stage" and those near the sides were more clearly and loudly projected than those near the center or farther back. This meant that the wind soloists, the cello, and the double bass were louder than anyone else (including the entire choir). And their projected tone was raw and extraordinarily detailed, lacking in warmth or body. Blend was impossible. Instruments at the rear, including the harpsichord, were inaudible. The soloists, singing from midstage, were consistently overbalanced. The only possible remedy, a total regrouping of the forces, bringing the vocal soloists to the front, was surely beyond consideration, given the time constraints.

To be sure, there were moments of beauty and magic, such as the astonishing Christe eleison, in which the vocal soloists entered one by one, bass-tenor-alto-soprano, over the strings senza basso, or the moving chorale, "O sacred head sore wounded" in the Cantata..

I would like to have heard this concert in a better environment. Doubtless, audiences at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Palo Alto or at the beautiful St Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church on Potrero Hill will have had a different experience.

(Joseph Spencer is a longtime early music devotee, who divides his time between being a merchant (The Musical Offering in Berkeley, an early music CD store and cafe/bistro), a record producer (Wildboar Recordings and others), and radio broadcaster (Chapel Court & Countryside, KMZT, 1510 AM, 12-2 p.m.Sundays, and KKGO, Los Angeles, 7-9 am Sundays)

©2000 Joseph Spencer, all rights reserved