Cover image: Pacific MusicWorks (Photo: Bill Mohn)
We are so fortunate in Seattle to have so many choices of Christmas music to hear in wonderful performances, from the Northwest Boychoir to the Seattle Men’s Chorus, to the great religious music of the past and present performed by groups large and small.
Among the last named, Pacific MusicWorks’ performances of Bach Advent Cantatas, “Light in the Darkness,” is a fine example. At Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Mercer Island Friday night, ten musicians on period instruments and four singers played and sang three cantatas by Bach and one which used to be thought to be by Bach but is now attributed to Telemann: Bach’s Cantatas BWV 62, “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,” BWV 132 “Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn,“ BWV 36 “Schwingt freudig euch empor,” and BWV 141 (now Telemann’s TWV 1:183) “Das ist gewisslich wahr.” These are not the most famous cantatas though several have familiar melodies reused by Bach from an earlier composition.
This kind of performance can be even more thrilling than with larger forces, perhaps because the intimacy brings the music and its message closer, and all the threads of both singers and instrumentalists are clear and easy to follow as they weave in and out of each other’s lines in ever changing and beautiful harmonies.
While it is the singers who are giving the message, the instrumentalists are creating an intricate and equally important environment which enhances the words. Violinists Tekla Cunningham and Ingrid Matthews, violist Romaric Pokorny, cellist Elisabeth Reed, oboists Kathryn Montoya and Curtis Foster, organist Henry Lebedinsky, and Stephen Stubbs, director, harpsichordist, lutenist, and guitarist as well, are all noted performers on Baroque instruments who are steeped in the style and appropriate ornamentation for these cantatas. As are the singers, soprano Tess Altiveros, alto Laura Pudwell, tenor Zach Finkelstein, and Zachary Lenox, baritone.
Each of these cantatas has its own flavor. BWV 62, for the first Sunday in Advent, is full of joy, while BWV 36, also for that Sunday, is longer than the others and is a dance of joy but also serene, welcoming and loving. BWV 132, for the fourth Sunday, is anticipatory but also quite stern in suggesting the Christians to whom it is addressed look at themselves and their consciences. The Telemann, for the third Sunday, is as upbeat as the other three, but also admonishes the Christian to look at himself, even saying bluntly that if he “calls himself a Christian and still gives obedience to sin he is a liar!”
Tess Altiveros, soprano (Photo courtesy artist)
Each individual aria or recitative brought out these emotions. Lenox’s dramatic baritone sounded both encouraging and cheerful with a wonderful running accompaniment in his recitative and aria of BWV 62, stern in BWV 132; soprano Altiveros stood out in each of her solos for her expressiveness, not only in the lovely voice but in her stance and face, full of excitement, loving or full of hope. Zach Finkelstein could have had more expression in his singing, as despite his fine voice he sounded a little deadpan. Laura Pudwell’s unusual alto, with its wide range and amazing agility, sounded joyful one moment and denouncing hypocrites the next.
The plangent sound of the Baroque oboe, more nasal than modern ones, added color in often florid obbligato accompaniments to many of the different sections, but using different combinations of this small group of instruments gave variety to the whole.
The very high standard of performance was typical of Pacific MusicWorks. Stubbs, thanks to his years of experience in Baroque music, particularly vocal music here and in Europe, has a vast array of topnotch musicians he can call upon to perform with him, including quite a few, like Cunningham, Matthews, Altiveros, Lebedinsky, and more who happen to live locally.