Last night (6 January 2010) was the crowning concert of the first Arizona Bach Festival. On the program were four of six parts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s beloved Christmas Oratorio (S. 248) featuring the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and a chamber festival orchestra. The venue was the recently-renovated Central United Methodist Church in Midtown Phoenix, whose acoustics quite possibly rival Trinity Cathedral’s in Downtown Phoenix. (Yes, I said it.)
A quick note about the Christmas Oratorio: Unlike other grand oratorios from the period, Bach’s work is comprised of six separate cantatas that are for Christmas Day through Epiphany (January 6). Bach’s original design was for the six separate cantatas to be performed separately. Modern concert performances perform all six. JS Bach’s cantatas combine grand choruses, settings of chorales, arias, and recitatives. Some feature small overtures/sinfonias at the beginning of each cantata.
There is a strong element of musical foreshadowing in the Christmas Oratorio. Bach employs the Passion chorale Befiehl du deine Wege (usually sung in English as O sacred head now wounded) throughout the work. Most notably, the chorale concludes Part VI as well as the complete Oratorio. In addition, an aria and chorale from Part V (Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden?) are borrowed from his St John Passion (S. 245).
Joining the 27-voice Phoenix Chorale was a 19-member chamber orchestra as well as a continuo organist. It should be noted that a key element to Bach’s works (and most Baroque works in general) is a strong basso continuo. In the performance, cello and organ combined to play the continuo. Jan Simiz (cello) and Sue Westendorf (organ) were perfectly together in this respect.
For the most part, the Phoenix Chorale’s pronunciation of the German text was easily discernible. When the choir was singing the same words at the same time, even non-German speakers could transcribe the text. But like most of Bach’s work, unison writing is rare and often times the different vocal parts are singing different words. That, combined with the live nature of the space’s acoustics, muddied up the text. I was sitting about 30 feet from the choir so I cannot imagine what it was like for people sitting in the back of the house.
On his game at the concert was Erik Gustafson, a tenor in the Phoenix Chorale, who performed the role of evangelist. (In the Christmas Oratorio as well as the Passions, the Evangelist connects the different arias and chorales together with text from the Bible sung in recitative form.) He sung with a pure, refined sound that, in my mind, made for a perfect evangelist. Mr. Gustafson kept to the simplicity of the text and added vocal effects (e.g. vibrato) very sparingly that actually contributed to the success of that role.
It was good to see the Phoenix Chorale return to its roots (they were, until recently, called the Phoenix Bach Choir). The Chorale, along with the orchestra and conductor Scott Alan Youngs, performed this work brilliantly. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is not a work that should be taken lightly. The combined ensemble presented the work in a manner that even those who do not appreciate JS Bach’s music would suddenly appreciate it; for those who admire the great composer’s music, their admiration would become even greater.
This concert was one part of the Arizona Bach Festival, and so far, each of the performance spaces have been packed houses. It truly is heartwarming that, even in times of economic peril and also in a state whose legislators do not recognize the value of arts in the community, people enjoy and support the arts. With a concert like last night’s, it can be truthfully said that there are artistic gems in this desert.
-Edward Jensen
(For pictures from last night’s concert as well as the previous concerts in the series, check the Festival’s Facebook page at facebook.com/arizonabachfestival.)
Coming in just a couple days (actually, beginning on the 3rd!) is the premiere Arizona Bach Festival. It’s the logical next step in Phoenix’s American Bach series that just wrapped up a seven-year cycle of the complete JS Bach cantatas as well as his St Matthew and St John Passions at All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
So this month, from the 3rd-7th, the Festival will happen at locations up and down Central Avenue. The orchestra features members of the Phoenix Symphony, the chorus is the Phoenix Chorale (of Grammy fame), the guest concertmaster is Dr. Stephen Redfield, the concert organists are Dr. Kimberly Marshall and Scott Dettra, and the conductor is Scott Youngs.
There are five events: two organ recitals (both at All Saints’), a solo violin recital (in the lobby of the Viad Tower in Midtown Phoenix), a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (at Central United Methodist Church), and an educational component sponsored by ASU and Arizona School for the Arts. The events list is online here and tickets are available here.
Organist and composer Paul Manz died Wednesday. As a musician who’s spent a little time behind the organ, I had the great privilege to play some of Mr. Manz’s works.
Paul Manz was a church organist who took the liberty of being creative at the keyboard. He liked to introduce hymns that the congregation at Minneapolis’ Mount Olive Lutheran Church would sing with improvisations. Church members loved them, and word about his compositions eventually led to Manz playing at hymn festivals nationwide.
For 37 years, he led music at Mount Olive at 3045 Chicago Av. S., where his music will be played and prayer services will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to mourn and honor him. He died Wednesday in St. Paul following a long illness. He was 90. [source]
Now, he’s with the company of Bach, Handel, Buxtehude, Mozart, and the entire company of saints. He will be missed but his music lives on.
Join the Cathedral Center for the Arts on Saturday, September 19, 2009, at 7:30 PM, in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for a spectacular concert featuring music for organ and trumpet by Tromba Mundi: William Byrd, Joe Price, Erik Morales, and others.
Tromba Mundi was founded in January of 2008 for the sole purpose of the exploration of trumpet ensemble repertoire and the promotion of new works.
Each member of the ensemble is a professional pedagogue and performer from the Universities of: Capital (OH), South Carolina, West Chester (PA), Indiana, Rowan & the North Carolina School of the Arts. Also, all members perform frequently with other ensembles such as the Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Augusta Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Brevard Orchestra, as well as various jazz ensembles, chamber ensembles, freelancing, and commercial recording work. Several members have solo recordings under various record labels.
In this amazing septet are: James Ackley, Scott Belck, Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski, Leonard Foy, and Judith Saxton. Joining them at the Great Cathedral Organ (IV.71) is guest organist Gary Quamme.
Tickets are available at the door for $10.
For more information, please contact Gary Quamme at 480-319-0080.
The Phoenix Symphony’s College Club Card gives Phoenix-area college students the opportunity to attend unlimited Symphony Classics concerts for only $30. Tickets can be picked up – one per cardholder, student ID required – at the Symphony Hall Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online using the preset promotional code COLLEGE. There is a limit of one ticket per cardholder and a maximum of 100 tickets available per concert; therefore, availability is not guaranteed to all Classics concerts. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.
For the complete list of eligible concerts, click here. And for more information, call the PSO’s box office, (602) 495-1999, or drop by (they’re open 10a-4p, and they’re quite lovely people!).
On the repertory for the evening’s performance was John Adams‘ On the Transmigration of Souls, a piece written in memory of the 11 September 2001 attacks (and how apropos it was played on the eighth anniversary of that terrible day), Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in d minor. In those three pieces, the PSO under the ever-capable baton of Maestro Michael Christie reminded us all that they are a tour de force symphony orchestra in the American Southwest.
The evening’s performance of the Adams work was the first time I had heard anything from his pen. I went in armed with a little bit of knowledge of what to expect, and the piece met those expectations. The piece is scored for orchestra, chorus, and audio tape with people reading missing person signs, quotes from those inside the two hijacked aircraft, and other 9/11-related texts. Adams’ work is rather dissonant and atonal, but the PSO and the four choirs (more on this later) handled it with ease. I did find that the tape and choir covered each other up to the point where I couldn’t discern both. All the same, four choirs joined in the fun: the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, the Arizona State University Symphonic Chorale, the Phoenix Boys’ Choir, and the Western Illinois Singers – over 400 personnel on the stage!
Segued on to the end of the Adams was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s moving motet, Ave verum corpus (KV 618). Mozart’s work is only four minutes long, and it balanced out the dissonance of the Adams rather nicely.
The main highlight of the season-opening concert came after intermission. Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in d minor is one of those pieces that’s sadly almost become cliché in American mainstream culture because of the finale movement. But the other three movements explore the gamut of emotions en route to the finale movement wherein Joy is discovered.
For whatever reason, the usually lush strings sounded rather hollow during the Beethoven. In the first movement – Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso – Beethoven’s lush string orchestration didn’t carry through by the PSO. The orchestra didn’t seem to perform this work with reduced personnel, so I can’t quite figure out why. Still, key passages came through loud and clear and the orchestra was on top of its expression. Each movement built on the previous, and all were delights to hear in their own ways. The second movement – Scherzo (Molto vivace – Presto) – is frenetic and hurried but accentuated by tympani tuned at an octave. The third movement – Adagio molto e cantabile – is a sublime serenade with sensuous orchestration for wind instruments that (maybe by Beethoven’s design) lulls the listener into a false sense of calm before the finale movement.
And then we get to the fourth movement (Presto, etc.). For those not familiar with Beethoven’s score, the first several minutes of this movement explore themes from the previous three movements in the work’s persistent search for joy. The familiar theme (what many know as the Ode to Joy) is introduced by the basses and celli and is built upon. Christie kept the orchestra under control here, which is notable because this area has great potential to fall apart. Then comes the highlight and the reason why Beethoven 9 is called the “Choral” Symphony: enter the choir and soloists. The baritone soloist did a fantastic job on the piece’s opening récitative (O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!) and the choir was magnificent in its diction of the German text. My common complaint of listening to recordings of this piece is that the German text is difficult to understand. This changed with the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2006 release of Beethoven 9, when the Minnesota Chorale sang the words with phenomenal diction that non-German speakers could transcribe it. And so too did the Phoenix Symphony Chorus.
My persistent observation (bordering on complaint) about Maestro Christie and the PSO is that they have a tendency to rush their tempi. Last season, I noted this in my reviews of Haydn’s Creation and Orff’s Carmina Burana. It has mixed results, but when the orchestra can’t play 110% at that rushed tempo, then why even bother? A couple of sections in the Beethoven come to mind – the Presto in the second movement and the faster sections of the final movement – where the orchestra was clearly scrambling to keep up with Mr. Christie’s conducting.
Finally, as an alumnus of the Phoenix Symphony Youth Orchestra and self-confessed concert-going snob, I was rather dismayed when the audience clapped in between each of the Beethoven’s four movements. This threw off Christie’s pace but the orchestra recovered quickly. To the audience: you do not clap in between movements of any symphonic work! EVER!
Audience distractions aside, the PSO performed three works fantastically well and only reaffirmed that they are a cultural gem in this desert. Let’s hope that the economy rebounds quickly so that the PSO can keep performing symphonic masterworks for years and decades to come.
Join Trinity Cathedral interim organist Dr. William Barnett and Mark X. Hatlfield as they present a duet concert on two of Downtown Phoenix’s greatest and most celebrated instruments: the Cathedral’s 71-rank Schantz organ and Bösendorfer concert grand piano.
The concert is in a week’s time, 7PM, Friday August 21st, at Trinity Cathedral (100 W Roosevelt St, Phoenix). It’s free and open to the public, with a free-will retiring collection taken to support the Cathedral’s fantastic music program.
The Camerata Singers are in concert tomorrow! It’s a concert that you surely don’t want to miss!
A couple of good friends from my high school, Eric Choate and Sean Colonna, have put together a summer choir that’s called the Camerata Singers, and I’m in the choir. Over the past weeks, we’ve prepared music by Palestrina, de Victoria, des Prez, Morley, Gasparini, Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, and a couple settings of folk tunes. Rather than keep this incredible music to ourselves, we want to share it with you!
With this said, join us for our season concert this Sunday, August 2nd, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1407 N 2nd St, in Phoenix. (It’s near the McDowell/Central Avenue Metro station.) The performance begins at 3:30pm and a free-will retiring collection will be taken.
[author's note: So since this is a personal blog, a couple of shameless self-promotions are perfectly okay.]
A couple of good friends from my high school, Eric Choate and Sean Colonna, have put together a summer choir that’s called the Camerata Singers, and I’m in the choir. Over the past weeks, we’ve prepared music by Palestrina, de Victoria, des Prez, Morley, Gasparini, Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, and a couple settings of folk tunes. Rather than keep this incredible music to ourselves, we want to share it with you!
With this said, join us for our season concert this Sunday, August 2nd, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1407 N 2nd St, in Phoenix. (It’s near the McDowell/Central Avenue Metro station.) The performance begins at 3:30pm and a free-will retiring collection will be taken.
And, if you’re bold enough, join the church for its 5:30pm evening service and see me conduct the Camerata on Tomás Luis de Victoria’s O magnum mysterium. It’s a really beautiful piece:
Earlier today, I went to Central Music (at Central & Camelback) to get some new music to play on the piano. (If you’re curious, I bought Volume I of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.) Anyway, while waiting at the cash register, I read quite possibly the greatest series of music puns. Sadly, if you don’t understand music theory, you won’t get this post.
A C, an E-flat, and a G go into a bar. The bartender says: “Sorry, but we don’t serve minors.” So, the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished: the G is out flat.
An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, “Excuse me, I’ll just be a second.”
An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims: “Get out now! You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight.” The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes.
The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says: “You’re looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development.” This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit and stands there au natural. Eventually, the C sobers up and realizes in horror that he’s under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility.
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Join the Cathedral Center for the Arts on Saturday, September 19, 2009, at 7:30 PM, in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for a spectacular concert featuring music for organ and trumpet by Tromba Mundi: William Byrd, Joe Price, Erik Morales, and others.
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