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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: Ambitious, professional production of Bach cantatas

 Preise Jerusalem den Herrn, photo Peter Hislop
Preise Jerusalem den Herrn, photo Peter Hislop

AFTER a 16 year hiatus, Andrew Koll has reformed the Canberra Bach Ensemble for an ambitious production of four Bach cantatas over two performances in St Christopher’s.

Bach produced around 200 cantatas, mostly for performance on specific days of the Lutheran liturgical calendar, as well as others for patron’s’ birthdays, wedding or similar events. They are written for a choir, vocal soloists and a small orchestra and usually run to 20-30 minutes in duration.

For these concerts Koll chose four quite contrasting works, written over a forty year period in the first half of the eighteenth century. The first cantata presented, BWV 119, was written in 1723 celebrating the election of a new Town Council in Leipzig, and is a big rousing piece of music. (Perhaps we should do something similar here after the October 15 elections)  It was an inspiring way to open the concert with the  orchestra’s thirteen string players, four trumpets, three oboes, two recorders and tympani all going at it.

The four modern trumpets did unbalance the sound to some extent, but this is perhaps unavoidable with modern rather than period instruments. Still, it was a big glorious sound with the orchestra and choir working together.

The second work, BWV 131 from 1707-08, stripped back the orchestra to the strings and one oboe with the soloists and choir. This is a more contemplative piece with the bass and tenor soloists singing with the soprano and alto sections of the choir which gave a distinct colouring to the sound The second half of the program was a mirror image of the first, starting with another slower work and finishing with a brighter, more uplifting final cantata.

Conductor Andrew Koll, photo Peter Hislop
Conductor Andrew Koll, photo Peter Hislop
Except for a tiny wobble immediately after the interval at the beginning of the third cantata, the playing and singing were close to faultless.  I did wonder however, why the soprano and alto soloists sang with the choir, while the tenor and bass soloists sat off to the side, only appearing for their solos.

There is an inherent problem, however with the acoustics in St Christopher’s which seems to swallow up any clarity in the performance. At times, the soloists struggled to be heard over a single instrumental line.  The cathedral should be an ideal venue for this kind of music. After all, it is the type of building the music was written for, but there is something about where the sound goes which just does not quite work . There is little sense of knowing where the sound is coming from and a general blurriness.

The Ensemble received a well-deserved standing and extended ovation at the end. There has obviously been a great deal of dedication and hard work from Andrew Koll to pull this together  and he has assembled a highly skilled and professional group of musicians to realise his vision.

Bring on the next concert!

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Ian Meikle, editor

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