Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Peter Whelan director. Miriam Allan soprano, Rebecca Leggett mezzo-soprano, Ruairi Bowen tenor, Malachy Frame baritone, Choir of the Age of Enlightenment: Bach: Cantata No.66 `Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen’; Cantata No.6 `Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden’; Bach: Easter Oratorio, BWV.249
The QEH was sold out for this concert – I’ve noticed before that the OAE have a very keen following and they also seem to attract a lot of young people. You wouldn’t normally expect an evening of Bach’s church music to be such a crowd-puller……
The three works were all Easter -related – the Oratorio, obviously placed, in terms of recitatives, arias and choruses on Easter Sunday, and the other two responses to the lectionary reading for Easter Monday in the Lutheran Church, an account of the travellers on the Road to Emmaus.
Replying to the question I’ve asked myself before – why do people listen to these pieces? Whty are they so popular? I guess one reason is that all Bach’s religious pieces are responding to a story which – however little or much people know of the details – represents the best and worst of humanity, and offers a whole range of emotions people can respond to. Fear, hope, love, joy, anger, anguish – all expressed in great music, and within a story deeply embedded in our culture – are perhaps the reasons for the popularity Bach’s music clearly has for so many.
With 12 hours absence I have to say one piece rather blends into another in my aural memory. There were some lovely arias with solo instruments prominent alongside the singers – oboe, flute (some spectacular playing there) and solo violin; no less than three swirling Baroque trumpets in the Easter Oratorio, which, together with kettle-drums made a splendidly joyful sound. What most stays lodged in my mind was the duet between fear and hope – for tenor and mezzo in BWV 66. almost operatic in form but sung to one of Bach’s dance tunes.
Peter Whelan’s name seems to crop up increasingly – he conducted the highly watchable and listenable -to Bajazet at Covent Garden a couple of years ago and is conducting another Vivaldi opera – L’Olympiade’ – in May there (which I’m going to). He seems to have the virtues and vices of many conductors who focus on authentic performance styles – great vigour and energy (which made Bajazet extremely exciting to watch and listen to), but a tendency to take the music too fast at times, so that some of the arias didn’t really seem to have enough space to breathe and fully reveal the emotions within them (and in the case of the flute-supported aria seemed to interrupt the player’s flow so that breathing pauses sounded too obvious). All the singers and the chorus were impressive but I’d single out particularly Rebecca Leggett, the mezzo, and Ruairi Bowen the tenor as outstanding
John's musical journey 