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FESTIVAL
Festival Chorale and Orchestra William Jon Gray Michael Dean and Sanford Sylvan Adams Master Class
July 24-28, 2006
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The Bach Festival at the Midway Point
By Scott MacClelland
While Al Gore is trying to do something about global warming, no one in Carmel has been complaining about the warm, sunny days, and clear nights — a marked departure from those "night and morning low clouds and fog" we used to hear in monotonous weather forecasts.
While there has been a little complaining at the festival — one longtime patron grumbled that Handel's Israel in Egypt was "boring" — the prevailing mood was upbeat and positive. The Handel piece, heard on Friday night, is at its best as a vehicle for choral display, abundantly demonstrated by William Jon Gray's virtuoso vocal ensemble and 13 soloists. Nearly as popular as Messiah in Victorian London, the oratorio is a strangely unbalanced piece. Its original first part, The Ways of Zion Do Mourn, was jettisoned by Handel soon after the first production, leaving the more familiar Exodus and Moses' Song. The Exodus portion details the 10 plagues with graphic tone painting but gives short shrift to the crossing of the Red Sea. Moses' Song, in turn, concentrates on that latter event, reiterating the words "The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."
Like Gray, many of the Chorale singers come from Indiana University. The singers negotiated the fugues, double-fugues, and melismas with breathtaking imagery and robust sonority, articulating consonants with spitting clarity. Gray conducted with authority and strong momentum, as befits the work's drama. John Koza, in charge of the local volunteer Chorus, held up his end as well, buttressing the Chorale's power.
In addition to the main concerts — which included a Mozart sampler conducted by Bruno Weil, an evening of Mexican Baroque music conducted by William Jon Gray (see review), and a program of Bach and Handel concertos led by harpsichordist Andrew Arthur — the festival included a smorgasbord of vocal and instrumental recitals. Among them, heard last Thursday at Carmel's All Saints Church, were bass-baritone Michael Dean and baritone Sanford Sylvan singing Bach's two solo cantatas for that voice range: respectively, BWV 56 Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen and BWV 82 Ich habe genug. They were joined by an ensemble of strings, oboes, and cor anglais directed by Andrew Arthur. Also featured was Bach's sonata for violin and harpsichord, BWV 1017, showcasing violinist Cynthia Roberts. Its first movement is a prototype of the famous Erbarme dich obbligato in the St. Matthew Passion. Both cantatas made a vivid impression, with the instrumental ensemble etching detail often overlooked in performances of the more commonly used organ or harpsichord. Cellist Allen Whear assertively painted the billowing waves in the first recitative of BMV 56 and the brightly rising figure of "let us be like Simeon" in BMV 82's first recitative. Oboist Roger Cole echoed Dean in 56's Endlich wird mein Joch and tinged Sylvan's opening Ich habe genug of 82 with a hint of regret. Two violins and a viola soothed his haunting Schlummert ein, the high point of 82. Four of the Chorale singers were accepted as this summer's Adams Master Class fellows. Sherezade Panthaki, Jonas Laughlin, Scott Joseph Mello, and Mischa Bouvier took guidance from master class director David Gordon and festival soloists Kendra Colton, Benjamin Butterfield, and Sanford Sylvan. On Wednesday, bass-baritone Bouvier worked on Handel's Why do the nations so furiously rage together? aria from Messiah with Butterfield, who succeeded in restoring his pupil's attention to the words — the "purpose," as Bouvier admitted afterward — and the need for unflagging intensity to support it.
A few more concerts of the 69th Bach Festival are yet to be performed, including the culminating Adams Master Class Showcase Recital and the long-sold-out "Best of the Fest," this Saturday at Sunset Center. A clamor among festivalgoers for the return of the piano (abandoned by Bruno Weil years ago), along with its much-adored Mozart concertos and festival-favorite Janina Fialkowska, might soon be silenced. According to managing director Jesse Read, in 2008 the instrument will be celebrated, from its classical fortepiano beginnings through to its modern incarnation, with a Mozart concerto as a highlight. As for 2007, Read sees rare works by J.C.F. Bach, Pärt, and Reger; more familiar Haydn and Beethoven; an a cappella program by the Festival Chorale at Carmel Mission; and the St. Matthew Passion, among other works, by J.S. Bach.
(Since 1978, Scott MacClelland has written music criticism and journalism for all the major newspapers on the Monterey Peninsula, and for the Metro papers in Santa Cruz and San Jose. During the same period, he has taught music history for Monterey Peninsula College. In recent years he has contributed articles to Strings magazine.)
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William Jon Gray
