Day Two of Orchestra of St. Luke’s Annual Bach Festival

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 21 June 2024 14:31

Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Nicholas V. Hall.

At Zankel Hall on the night of Tuesday, June 18th, I had the immense privilege to attend this year’s terrific second of three concerts in the Orchestra of St. Luke’s annual Bach Festival, under the outstanding direction of principal conductor Bernard Labadie.

The event began splendidly with a sterling account of Charles Avison's marvelous Concerto grosso No. 5 in D minor (after Domenico Scarlatti). According to the useful program note by Ryan M. Prendergast:

No surviving Scarlatti work has been identified as Avison's source for the opening Largo movement. For the second rapid Allegro movement, Avison worked from Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonata in C minor, K. 11. The Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K. 41, provided the materials for the Andante moderato movement. The Allegro finale comes from Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K. 5. In his concerti grossi, Avison did not simply subject a keyboard work to simple instrumentation but instead adapted the material to the new means of expression in an organic and original manner. 

The initial movement is serious, even weighty, while the following is energetic, if not sprightly. The third movement is solemn but paradoxically lively, and the finale is the most cheerful and effervescent one.

The brilliant and celebrated violinist, Augustin Hadelich, then entered the stage for an outstanding performance of Francesco Geminiani’s wonderful Concerto Grosso, Op. 5, No. 13, “La Follia” (after Arcangelo Corelli), which is dynamic and intricate, with variations of greater gravity. Prendergast provides more commentary:

During his lifetime, Geminiani composed several sets of concerti grossi, which include various arrangements of sonatas by his teacher Corelli. In his arrangements, Geminiani notably added a viola to the concertino group, providing an expansion of timbres. One of Geminiani's notable projects is his arrangement of Corelli's Twelve Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. The last work of Geminiani's set bears the designation “La Follia,” which refers to a Portuguese dance form that follows a standardized chord progression. The formal scheme of Corelli's sonata and Geminiani's concerto grosso is theme and variations. Like Corelli, Geminiani introduces the basic idea of the chord progression before exploring its possibility in 23 variations.

The ensemble then excellently played the beautiful Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572, of Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by Labadie, which has a highly elevated quality. The annotator adds:

Also known under the name “Pièce d'Orgue,” the Fantasia in G Major BWV 572, here arranged for orchestra, falls into three distinct sections. Each exhibits Bach's mastery of harmonic maneuvering. The first section makes extensive use of filigree figures in the upper registers, while the second (and longest) section explores musical ideas of more measured and majestic quality. The elaborate passage work returns in the final section, a summation of the harmony of contrasts in the composition overall.  

Hadelich returned to close the first half of the evening with an inspired reading of the same composer’s extraordinary Concerto for Violin in G minor, BWV 1056R* (edited by Wilfried Fischer). Prendergast records that, “The first and final movements of the reconstructed Concerto for Violin in G minor survived in the Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056.” And further: “The middleLargomovement served as the opening Sinfonia of Bach's cantata Ich steh' mit einem Fuß im Grabe (‘I stand with one foot in the grave’), BWV 156.” The opening Allegro is stirring and engrossing; the succeeding, very famous, slow movement is magnificent, while the concludingPrestois propulsive—almost breathless—as well as exultant and exciting.

The second part of the concert was comparable in strength, starting with an excellent realization of Labadie’s arrangement of Johann Pachelbel’s absorbing, magisterial Chaconne in E minor, about which the annotator states:

The Chaconne in E minor on this program comes from a collection of six works Pachelbel wrote for organ. Originally cast in F minor, Pachelbel's chaconne demonstrates an elevated style indicative of the composer's later period. As a musical genre, the chaconne is a variation form involving a “ground bass” theme introduced in the lower voices. This theme is repeated throughout the chaconne with contrasting melodic material in the upper voices. The ground bass in the Chaconne in E minor, for example, is a sequence of four descending notes. Over a series of twenty-two variations, Pachelbel permutates this musical idea and its melodic embroidery in an accomplished way. The arrangement here for strings and continuo by Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie echoes the instrumentation of Pachelbel's surviving works for chamber ensembles. 

Equally compelling was an exceptional version of Geminiani’s Concerto grosso in F Major, Op. 5, No. 10, in F Major (after Corelli). Prendergast remarks:  

Composers like Corelli frequently organized the movements of theirconcerti grossias elaborate suites of Baroque dances. Geminiani's arrangement of theConcerto grossoin F Major Op. 5 No. 10 follows this scheme [ . . . . ]

The piece begins with an imposing Preludio, marked Adagio, which precedes an ebullient Allemande—“traditionally the first dance of a suite like this,” according to Prendergast—anAllegro,and then a grand, sober, but not doleful,Sarabande,aLargo;it ends with two Allegro movements,a vivacious Gavotta and a Giga.

The program proper concluded with a stellar rendition of Bach’s glorious Concerto for Violin in D minor, BWV 1052R* (edited by Fischer), again featuring Hadelich as soloist. The annotator again explains: 

Popularized by Felix Mendelssohn in the nineteenth century, the Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, has its roots in cantata movements written during Bach's early years in Leipzig. Since the score utilizes several melodic devices attributed to string playing, experts have hypothesized an original version for violin soloist.

The initial Allegro is forceful, virtuosic, exhilarating, even dazzling, and the ensuing Adagio is subdued and lyrical, if not without a certain mournfulness. The finale, another Allegro, is exuberant, with an irresistible momentum—like the first movement, it contains a stunning cadenza. Enthusiastic applause elicited a fabulous encore from Hadelich: the same composer’s Andante from his Sonata II, BWV 1003.