Festival 2020, Concert #1: Air on the G String
This is a poignant moment.
Tonight, May 29th, would have seen the opening of the fifth anniversary of the Toronto Bach Festival. Although it makes me sad that we are not performing for you, I’m happy to report that all of the artists and staff of the festival are healthy and safe, and I sincerely hope all of you reading this are well.
The Toronto Bach Festival celebrates the beauty and magic of live performance, with all of the sharing of art and community that our concerts bring to our audience. We can be grateful, however, for the modern phenomena of recordings and the internet that will allow us to virtually share some of Bach’s uplifting music.
I want to especially thank our steadfast donors, and all of you that donated your purchased tickets to the festival in recent months. Thanks to your outstanding support, I am confident that the Toronto Bach Festival will weather this storm and emerge ready to bring outstanding performances of this matchless music to you once again.
This will be the first of several blog posts presenting the concerts of the 2020 festival to you with suggested recordings of the music we would have been performing, together with some comments from me about the programmes and the music. Today I’ll take you through the music in the opening concert, and over the course of the next few weeks we’ll send you similar postings about the rest of the festival.
The fifth anniversary festival was planned to celebrate two of Bach’s most iconic works: the Mass in B minor, and the complete set of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. I was especially excited to present the Mass directed by the outstanding British Bach scholar and conductor (and my old friend from his salad days in California) John Butt. And what better way to celebrate our fifth anniversary than with a celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Sonatas and Partitas, the manuscript copy of which is dated 1720 in Bach’s hand. But mindful, as we are, of the riches of Bach’s creation, we did not want to omit from our celebration the performance of some cantatas, as well as the great instrumental music for which Bach is so justly famous. Thus our opening concert was devised to do just that, with the presentation of two cantatas, one a seldom performed early version of a well-known later work, and one an outstanding example of Bach’s mature cantata composition. Similarly, for the instrumental music my idea was to combine the famous “Air for the G String” found in the Orchestral Suite No. 3 (to be performed, in this case, in its original version) together with one of my own reconstructions of an oboe concerto.
Taking a step back, one could say that a unifying theme of the 2020 festival is one of revision and adaptability. Bach was always working to perfect his art, and nearly all of the works on the festival this year illustrate this fascinating process in one way or another. Most of the works on the opening concert are early versions of works know also in later iterations. The Sonatas and Partitas were composed over a period of years, carefully revised, and finally gathered together in the manuscript copy mentioned above, copied out and dated 1720. And the great Mass in B minor is perhaps the ultimate example of this process, representing adaptations of works from throughout Bach’s career as a composer, together with some of his last and most amazing vocal compositions.
Assembling this blog post has really demonstrated to me (as if I needed any proof!) that what the Toronto Bach Festival is offering to audiences is unique. As many of you know, the Toronto Bach Festival is dedicated to bringing you performances of Bach’s music that represent the most recent research into our understanding of contemporary performance practices. Many scholars now believe that Bach’s music for choral ensemble was intended to be performed by one voice on each part, or, in certain situations two voices per part. But I was not able to find any recordings of the vocal works with one-to-a-part choral performance of Cantata 80a, which is the early Weimar version of the famous Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott was limited to exactly one! We are proud to offer our patrons cutting edge programming and performances of these great works, both in terms of the performing forces, and in terms of exploring interesting versions of famous works. I hope you find this overview of the opening concert of the fifth anniversary festival, Air on the G String, enlightening and enjoyable, and I look forward to conducting you through the rest of the festival in the coming weeks.
CONCERT #1
AIR ON THE G STRING
Our concert would have opened with Cantata 80a, Alles was von Gott geboren, which, as I mentioned above, is the Weimar (or early) version of the work that became Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80 some 20 years later. Salomo Franck published the original text for performance in the Weimar court chapel in 1715, and it is believed to have been performed either in March 1715 or March 1716.
Here is the complete text in Pamela Dellal’s excellent translation.
1. Aria and Chorale
Alles, was von Gott geboren,
ist zum Siegen auserkoren.
Wer bei Christi Blutpanier
in der Taufe Treu geschworen,
siegt im Geiste für und für.
Alles, was von Gott geboren,
ist zum Siegen auserkoren.
Everything that is born of God
is destined for victory.
Whoever, with the bloody banner of Christ
is in baptism truly sworn,
conquers in the spirit again and again.
Everything that is born of God
is destined for victory.
2. Recitative
Erwäge doch,
Gottes, die so große Liebe,
da Jesus sich
mit seinem Blute dir verschriebe,
womit er dich
zum Kriege wider Satans Heer
und wider Welt und Sünde
geworben hat!
Gib nicht in deiner Seele
dem Satan und den Lastern statt!
Laß nicht dein Herz,
den Himmel Gottes auf der Erden,
zur Wüste werden!
Bereue deine Schuld mit Schmerz,
daß Christi Geist mit dir sich fest verbinde!
Consider then, Kind
children of God, the great love,
that Jesus himself
with His blood signed over to you,
through which He,
in the war against Satan’s host
and against the world and sin
has won you!
Do not make a place in your soul
for Satan and depravity!
Do not let your heart,
God’s heaven on earth,
become a wasteland!
Repent your guilt with pain,
so that Christ’s spirit may firmly bind itself to you!
3. Aria
Komm in mein Herzenshaus,
Herr Jesu, mein Verlangen!
Treib Welt und Satan aus
und laß dein Bild im mir erneuert prangen!
Weg, schnöder Sündengraus!
Come into my heart’s house
Lord Jesus, my desire!
Drive the world and Satan out
and let your image shine forth
renewed in me
Away, contemptible horror of sin!
4. Recitative
So stehe dann bei Christi blutgefärbten Fahne,
banner O Seele, fest!
Und glaube, daß dein Haupt dich nicht verläßt,
Leader Ja, daß sein Seig
auch dir den Weg zu deiner Krone bahne!
Tritt freudig an den Krieg!
Wirst du nur Gottes Wort
so hören als bewahren,
so wird der Feind gezwungen auszufahren,
dein Heiland bleibt dein Heil,
dein Heiland bleibt dein Hort!
Then stand with Christ’s bloodstained
O soul, firmly!
And believe, that you will not lose your
indeed, that His victory
will also pave the way to your crown!
March joyfully to the war!
If you only keep God’s word
as you hear it,
then the enemy will be driven out forcibly,
your Saviour remains your salvation,
your Saviour remains your refuge!
5. Duetto
Wie selig ist der Leib, der Jesu
dich getragen, Doch selger ist das Herz, das ihn im
Glaüben trägt!
Es bleibet unbesiegt und kann
die Feinde schlagen
Und wird zuletz gekrönt, wenn es den Tod erlegt.
How blessed are they, they that bore
you, Jesus
Still more blessed is the heart
that bears You in faith!
It remains unvanquished
and can strike the enemy
And will at last be crowned, when it
captures death
6. Chorale
Mit unsrer Macht ist nichts getan,
wir sind gar bald verloren.
Es streit’ vor uns der rechte Mann,
den Gott selbst hat erkoren.
Fragst du, wer er ist?
Er heist Jesus Christ,
der Herre Zebaoth,
und ist kein andrer Gott
das Feld muß er behalten.
With our strength nothing can be done,
we are very soon lost.
The righteous Man battles for us,
that God himself has elected.
You ask, who is He?
He is called Jesus Christ,
the Lord of Sabaoth,
and there is no other God;
He must hold the field.
I was only able to find one publicly-available recording of this work to offer you in this blog. Although it uses a full choir (rather than one voice to a part, as we would have performed it) it’s quite a nice performance, and has some interesting features, among which is the use of the bassoon rather than the more traditional cello in the beautiful continuo aria with soprano. The final duet is a piece that has always stood out to me even among many amazing vocal pieces by Bach as one of his most beautiful. In this aria I love the way Bach brings the music lower and lower and softer as he depicts the text “and will at last be crowned when it captures death,” and then deftly and beautifully transitions back to the beginning, as if the sun’s rays shine on us again.
The orchestration in the reconstruction of the cantata is uncertain; here they have opted for violin and viola. For TBF 2020 we were planning to use violin and oboe da caccia, as Bach used in the later version of the cantata.
The second work on the opening programme was to have been the ever popular Orchestral Suite No. 3, with its famous movement Air on the G string. Despite its rather hoary history as a violin recital piece from the 19th century (arranged and transposed), the movement remains a beautiful aria (Air) in Bach’s original. Our performance would have featured the purported original, based on research by the eminent musicologist Joshua Rifkin. This version omits the trumpets and timpani familiar to many of us, and brings us another beautiful orchestral work for string ensemble with oboes.
Here’s an excellent performance (although, sadly, omitting the oboes) by the Netherlands Bach Society.
Our programme was to continue with one of my own reconstructed oboe concertos, in this case the concerto after BWV 1056. This work has survived as the concerto for Harpsichord in F minor, BWV 1056. Like many of the harpsichord concertos, however, it’s easy to see that the original work was probably for a violin or an oboe. The slow movement is already known to us as a work for oboe: the opening sinfonia to the cantata, BWV 156, from 1729. I have researched the surviving sources and made my own version of the complete concerto for the oboe as a part of my Bach Oboe Concerto recording project in 2005.
I’m pleased to present you with access to that recording, made available for the first time on YouTube.
The final work on our programme was to have been the cantata BWV 70, Wachet! Betet! Although this work also had its origin in Weimar, our performance was planned to be the revision of the work that Bach performed in Leipzig in November 1723. The text of the earlier cantata is once again by the Weimar court poet Salomo Franck. Bach expanded this composition in Leipzig by adding two recitatives and a chorale. We do not know who wrote the text of the two new recitatives. Did Bach write them himself? It’s possible, but we really don’t know.
Here is the text:
Erster Teil
Part One
1. Chor
Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!
Seid bereit
Allezeit,
Bis der Herr der Herrlichkeit
Dieser Welt ein Ende machet.
Watch! pray! pray! watch!
Be ready
all the time,
until the Lord of glory
brings this world to an end.
2. Rezitativ B
Erschrecket, ihr verstockten Sünder!
Ein Tag bricht an,
Vor dem sich niemand bergen kann:
Er eilt mit dir zum strengen Rechte,
O! sündliches Geschlechte,
Zum ewgen Herzeleide.
Doch euch, erwählte Gotteskinder,
Ist er ein Anfang wahrer Freude.
Der Heiland holet euch, wenn alles
fällt und bricht,
Vor sein erhöhtes Angesicht;
Drum zaget nicht!
Be afraid, callous sinners!
A day dawns,
from which no one can hide:
it rushes upon you with stern judgment,
O! sinful race,
to your eternal sorrow.
Yet for you, chosen children of God,
it is the beginning of true joy.
The Savior gathers you, when
everything falls and breaks
before His exalted countenance;
therefore do not despair!
3. Arie A
Wenn kömmt der Tag, an dem wir ziehen
Aus dem Ägypten dieser Welt?
Ach! laßt uns bald aus Sodom fliehen,
Eh uns das Feuer überfällt!
Wacht, Seelen, auf von Sicherheit
Und glaubt, es ist die letzte Zeit!
When will the day come, on which we shall
depart
out of the Egypt of this world?
Ah! Let us soon flee out of Sodom,
before the fire falls on us!
Watch, souls, get up from your complacency
and believe, it is the end of time!
4. Rezitativ T
Auch bei dem himmlischen Verlangen
Hält unser Leib den Geist gefangen;
Es legt die Welt durch ihre Tücke
Den Frommen Netz und Stricke.
Der Geist ist willig, doch das
Fleisch ist schwach;
Dies preßt uns aus ein jammervolles Ach!
Even in heavenly longing
our bodies hold our spirits prisoner;
the world through its deceit
lays traps and snares for the righteous.
The spirit is willing,
yet the flesh is weak;
this wrenches from us a sorrowful Alas!
5. Arie S
Laßt der Spötter Zungen schmähen,
Es wird doch und muß geschehen,
Daß wir Jesum werden sehen
Auf den Wolken, in den Höhen.
Welt und Himmel mag vergehen,
Christi Wort muß fest bestehen.
Laßt der Spötter Zungen schmähen;
Es wird doch und muß geschehen!
Let the tongues of the mockers scorn,
yet it will and must occur,
that we shall behold Jesus
upon the clouds, in the heights.
World and heaven may pass away,
Christ's word must remain firm.
Let the tongues of the mockers scorn;
yet it will and must occur!
6. Rezitativ T
Jedoch bei dem unartigen Geschlechte
Denkt Gott an seine Knechte,
Daß diese böse Art
Sie ferner nicht verletzet,
Indem er sie in seiner Hand bewahrt
Und in ein himmlisch Eden setzet.
However among the uncouth masses
God considers His servants
so that this evil way
will no longer injure them,
as long as He keeps them in His hands
and places them in a heavenly Eden.
7. Choral
Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele,
Und vergiß all Not und Qual,
Weil dich nun Christus, dein Herre,
Ruft aus diesem Jammertal!
Seine Freud und Herrlichkeit
Sollt du sehn in Ewigkeit,
Mit den Engeln jubilieren,
In Ewigkeit triumphieren.
Rejoice greatly, o my soul,
and forget all stress and anguish,
since now Christ, your Lord,
calls you out of this valley of sorrow!
His joy and glory
you shall behold in eternity,
to celebrate with the angels,
and triumph in eternity.
Zweiter Teil
Part Two
8. Arie T
Hebt euer Haupt empor
Und seid getrost, ihr Frommen,
Zu eurer Seelen Flor!
Ihr sollt in Eden grünen,
Gott ewiglich zu dienen.
Lift up your heads
and be comforted, o righteous ones,
even to the bloom of your souls!
You shall flourish in Eden,
serving God eternally.
9. Rezitativ B und instrumental Choral
Ach, soll nicht dieser große Tag,
Der Welt Verfall
Und der Posaunen Schall,
Der unerhörte letzte Schlag,
Des Richters ausgesprochne Worte,
Des Höllenrachens offne Pforte
In meinem Sinn
Viel Zweifel, Furcht und Schrecken,
Der ich ein Kind der Sünden bin,
Erwecken? Jedoch, es gehet meiner Seelen
Ein Freudenschein,
ein Licht des Trostes auf.
Der Heiland kann sein Herze nicht verhehlen,
So vor Erbarmen bricht,
Sein Gnadenarm verläßt mich nicht.
Wohlan, so ende ich mit Freuden meinen Lauf.
Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit,
daß Gottes Sohn wird kommen
[in seiner großen Herrlichkeit,
zu richten Bös' und Frommen.]
Dann wird das Lachen werden theur,
Wann Alles soll vergehn im Feu'r,
Wie Petrus davon zeuget.)
Ah, shall not this great day,
the collapse of the world
and the ring of the trumpet,
the unheard-of last stroke,
the Judge's proclaimed words,
the open gates of Hell's wrath,
awaken in my mind
much doubt, fear, and terror,
since I am a child of sin?
However, to my soul comes
a ray of happiness,
a light of comfort.
The Savior cannot conceal His heart
which breaks with mercy,
His gracious arm will not abandon me.
Therefore I will end my course with joy.
(Instrumental Chorale:
Indeed the time is here
when God's Son will come
[in His great glory
to judge the wicked and the righteous.]
Then laughter will be rare,
when everything goes up in flames,
as Peter bore witness.)
10. Arie B
Seligster Erquickungstag,
Führe mich zu deinen Zimmern!
Schalle, knalle, letzter Schlag,
Welt und Himmel, geht zu Trümmern!
Jesus führet mich zur Stille,
An den Ort, da Lust die Fülle.
Blessed day of revival,
Resound, peal, last stroke,
world and heaven, fall in ruins!
Jesus leads me to quiet,
to the place where pleasure is complete.
11. Choral
Nicht nach Welt, nach Himmel nicht
Meine Seele wünscht und sehnet,
Jesum wünsch ich und sein Licht,
Der mich hat mit Gott versöhnet,
Der mich freiet vom Gericht,
Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht.
Not for the world, nor for heaven
does my soul long and yearn,
I desire Jesus and His light,
Who has with God forgiven me,
Who frees me from judgment,
I will not abandon my Jesus.
This cantata features some of Bach’s most dramatic writing. Notice how in the opening movement he depicts first “watch, be on guard” with the fanfare figuration of the trumpet, then “waiting with anticipation” with the extended sequence of gradually shifting harmonies. And all this before the voices enter. The two added recitatives are amazing accompanied recitatives for bass and strings, “Be afraid, callous sinners,” and “Ah, shall not this great day,” this last followed by the amazing aria “Blessed day of revival.” And I find the remarkable characterization by the instrumental line of the text “Let the tongues of the mockers scorn” in the soprano aria quite remarkable. Add to these, two other beautiful arias and two wonderful chorales and this is altogether an outstanding cantata.
Again, I was not able to find a publicly available recording that did NOT use a full choir. Here is an excellent performance, however, by John Elliot Gardiner.