Splendid Bach and Handel Conclude VoM Season

Last night in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Voices of Music (VoM) presented the final concert of its 2018–2019 season with a program devoted entirely to compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. The two Bach selections were both instrumental. The opening Sinfonia for the BWV 156 cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß in Grabe (I am standing with one foot in the grave), featured an oboe solo played by Marc Schachman; and the program concluded with the BWV 1067 (second) orchestra suite in B minor, with the flute part played by visiting soloist Emi Ferguson. Most of the Handel selections were vocal, sung by soprano Amanda Forsythe and tenor Thomas Cooley and featuring instrumental solos by both Ferguson and Schachman, as well as visiting bassoonist Anna Marsh and violinist Carla Moore, serving as concertmaster for the evening. In addition, Schachman began the program with a performance of Handel’s HWV 287 oboe concerto in G minor.

In contrast to current activities in the Civic Center, Handel could not have been given better treatment. The vocal selections were drawn from both the sacred and the secular repertoire. All were solo offerings with the exception of “As steals the morn” from the “L’Allegro” portion of the HWV 55 pastoral ode L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato (the cheerful, the thoughtful, and the moderate man). The duo work by Forsythe and Cooley was complemented by double-reed interplay between Schachman and Marsh. Ferguson, on the other hand, contributed a delightful volley of bird calls for Forsythe’s performance of “Sweet bird,” also from “L’Allegro.” The Bach offerings were equally stimulating, with Schachman at his most lyrical in the BWV 156 sinfonia and Ferguson covering the full gamut of styles in BWV 1067 with awesome agility and a rhetorical stance appropriate to the mood of each of the movements.

Taken as a whole, this was an evening that pleased consistently with its offerings of virtuosity based on a foundation of expressive interpretation. This may also have been the largest number of visiting soloists I have encountered at a VoM concert; and, among them all, Cooley’s was the only familiar face. Nevertheless, the chemistry between visitors and hosts was always solid, making for an evening of historically-informed performance at its most stimulating.