SFBC Surveys Eight Bach Composers

A portion of the Wikipedia page of the Bach family tree

Yesterday afternoon at Calvary Presbyterian Church, the San Francisco Bach Choir (SFBC), led by Artistic Director Magen Solomon, launched its new season. The title of the program was Fruit from the Bach Family Tree, and it presented works by eight different members of that family, the earliest being Johannes Bach (born in 1604) and the latest being Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (died in 1795). What struck me about the overall listening experience was the sense that, at least where sacred choral music was concerned, there seemed to be a basic “Bach style” that cut across the generations.

By way of disclaimer, I should confess that the only choral selection that was even remotely familiar was the final one, Sebastian’s BWV 230 motet “Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden” (praise ye the Lord, all ye nations). As a result, my listening skills were only beginning to attune themselves to the other members of the Bach family (even Emanuel, whom I have come to know better through his instrumental music). Taken as a whole, the program was a throughly engaging journey of discovery; but I still must confess that the diversity of the composers themselves was more than a little daunting. Nevertheless, if Solomon’s intent was to demonstrate that there was far more to the Bach family than Sebastian and his sons Emanuel and Friedemann, she definitely made the case with her generous choice of selections.

Fortunately, those selections were interleaved with instrumental performances of Sebastian’s music. These were performed by William Skeen on cello and organist Arthurs Omura. For the most part, these were familiar “turf;” and I was particularly engaged with Omura’s account of six of the partitas from the BWV 767 collection of what were basically variations on the chorale “O Gott, du frommer Gott.” Skeen (of course) visited two of the solo cello movements, the Allemande from the BWV 1007 suite in G major and the Sarabande from the BWV 1012 suite in D major, both of which were welcome islands of familiarity!

Nevertheless, what mattered most was how Solomon conceived this program as a journey of discovery. The fact is that there is more to the Bach family than any of us will ever come to know over the course of our brief lifetime. The good news was that Solomon provided a series of representative offerings that allowed the attentive listening to appreciate just how abundant were those “fruits” from the family tree!