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Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
Performed by:
The Collegiate Chorale
www.collegiatechorale.org
Robert Bass, Music Director
With
The Orchestra of St. Luke’s
www.oslmusic.org
And
Lisa Saffer, soprano
Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano
Paul Austin Kelly, tenor
James Maddalena, baritone
At
Carnegie Hall
(Carnegie Hall Website)
Press: Cohn Dutcher Associates
www.cohndutcher.com
Nikolas J. Lund
December 12, 2006
Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Weihnachts-oratorium (Christmas Oratorio) BMV 248 (1734)
Cantatas I, II, III
Tonight’s performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Carnegie Hall was effectively a celebration of religious history in a determinedly secular present.
During conductor Robert Bass’ opening remarks, we were told outright that the leader of the ensemble was himself “not a man of faith” (awkward pause in the hall at this) but that this music managed to bring him “as close to believing as should be otherwise possible.” The point was expressed gracefully enough to seem perfectly self-evident to anyone in the hall, but this otherwise obvious remark managed to leave a question mark in my brain. Even now I am still now musing over what appears to be a paradox of Faith worthy of the most self-perplexing medieval theologian.
But boundless faith or utter faithlessness aside, Mr. Bass delivered an overall lovely performance of this work, and clearly has the Collegiate Chorale singing at the level for which they have now been commended for more than six decades. While the chorus was calling out its prayers to Gott in der Höhe, I myself was naturally praying that the better part of the accompanying Orchestra of St. Luke’s would not be totally consumed in the murky Höhe of the Perelman stage. As usual, the harpsichord was completely lost (I didn’t even notice it was on stage until I caught a glimpse of those funny little legs sticking out from behind the string section), and it was only in the purely orchestral passages that one could appreciate the nuance and warmth of their playing. These musicians at least had a chance to shine during the famous Sinfonia which begins the second cantata of the oratorio.
Mercifully, the chorus itself did manage to get a good volume out into the hall, while the soloists resounded with an actually surprising force and clarity, getting every last syllable of German devotion into our ears. These four musicians actually deserve a special merit, very clearly savoring the music (especially from where they were sitting) and participating actively in this sprawling and complex religious service-cum-performance piece. Their individual musical temperaments all came through clearly and were decidedly a successful study in contrasts. The dark severity of baritone James Maddalena was well-tempered by the relative perkiness of soprano Lisa Saffer, while mezzo-soprano Gig Mitchell-Velasco and tenor Paul Austin Kelly constituted an aristocratic and highly-poised core to the proceedings.
The concert tonight fully delivered on a performance of religious celebration, while acknowledging, and at least partially explaining, in the opening remarks and program notes, the historical divorce of the religious cantata into the present, in which all “historical” music is material for a secular public-domain. It cannot be said that the concert set out to explode this matter (and why should it have), but the basic elements were nonetheless present to raise the question. Maybe if the entire 4+ hour Oratorio had been played, the question marks would grow larger and more dire?
At any rate, as far as “classical” programming is concerned, it is clear enough that Bach’s Christmas Oratorio gets far less performance than the musical setting of a certain other Baroque heavyweight, whose Hallelujah chorus has long since sealed public opinion on what Baroque musical monuments we should bracing through, in that special time, when one’s concert fare becomes indistinguishable from the music playing over the speakers of the department store. But, so brilliantly escaping all the potential commercialism of the future, Bach DOES still get his Christmas programming—at least one round per each major concert hall—and we in turn are at least given the opportunity to hear our way through a less-familiar narrative, re-considering this story yet again, but, this time with music, which is as vaguely familiar as anything else in Bach. Indeed, the six cantatas which constitute Christmas Oratorio are actually a re-collection of music which appear elsewhere in the greater oeuvre of the composer, prior to 1734—but we are always happy to let Bach recycle. After all, it is in familiarity that Bach’s genius makes its concessions to the ear.
For even if it is nothing more or less than a re-assemblage-cum-nativity narrative, it is in its great expansive music that the Oratorio begins to spin. A microcosm of Bach’s greater universe is formed, singing through those endlessly recycled and re-transposed motives, spiraling around in that self-harmonizing Bachian realm, where one is always returning to a familiar affirmation, distantly-heard. One follows the quite unshakeable faith of an artist, who is always preparing to embrace mystery and to bring us along, whether or not we are inclined to believe ourselves. But then perhaps the possibility of this almost-belief on our contemporary behalf is something for which we have not yet even credited Bach’s genius?
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