Soloists Rule at Last Concert of ABS Season

ABS Artistic & Music Director Jeffrey Thomas (from the home page for the 2018–2019 season)

Yesterday afternoon in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the American Bach Soloists (ABS) ensemble concluded its 30th season has it had begun this past October. The opening program included two of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg” concertos, BWV 1046 in F major and BWV 1048 in G major. Yesterday afternoon’s program presented the remaining four concertos in the collection that Bach presented to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt: BWV 1047 in F major, BWV 1049 in G major, BWV 1050 in D major, and BWV 1051 in B-flat major. Each half of the program included an additional concerto for multiple instruments. The composer for the first half was Antonio Vivaldi with the first of the twelve concertos in his Opus 3 (L’estro armonico), scored in the key of D major for four solo violins. The second half began with Georg Philipp Telemann’s TWV 52:e1 concerto in E minor with solo parts for both flute and recorder.

This turned out to be one of those concerts in which every musician listed in the program book had an opportunity to play as a concerto soloist. This often the case for instruments such as flute (Sandra Miller), oboe (Stephen Bard), and trumpet (John Thiessen), as well as the two recorder players (Aldo Abreu and Andrew Levy). However, all seven of the violinists (leader Carla Moore, Cynthia Black, Tatiana Chulochnikova, Katherine Kyme, Noah Strick, David Wilson, and principal second Jude Ziliak) were given solo opportunities. The same could be said of the violists (Ramón Negrón Pérez and Clio Tilton), cellists (William Skeen and Gretchen Claassen), gamba players (Skeen and Hallie Pridham), and continuo players Steven Lehning (on two sizes of violone) and harpsichordist Cory Jamason. In the immortal words of Jimmy Durante, “Everybody wants ta get inta da act!”

It is also worth noting that two of the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1050 and BWV 1051, were played without the presence of conductor Jeffrey Thomas. As is the case with BWV 1048, scored for nine solo strings and continuo, BWV 1051 has six solo string parts to which continuo may be added. However, in the latter case, the highest-pitched instrument is the viola, which gave Tilton the opportunity to serve as the ensemble’s leader. In BWV 1050, on the other hand, the harpsichord is “escalated” from continuo to solo instrument (an “elevation” that takes place gradually as the first movement of the concerto unfolds). The other soloists are flute and violin (Moore); and the low string parts for cello (Skeen) and violone are usually played solo. Yesterday, in addition, the ripieno parts for violin (Strick) and viola (Tilton) were also given solo performances. We have come a long way from the thick instrumental textures that audiences used to expect from conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler!

Taken as a whole, ABS served up an afternoon of splendid intimacy. These were performances of Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann in which every instrumental voice had it own individual qualities. Thus, while just about every selection was familiar to almost the entire audience (the Telemann concerto being the one possible exception), there was a freshness that was evident not only in the expressive rhetoric but also in the sparkling details emerging from the solid technique commanded by every one of the players, all of whom reminded us all of the true significance of the “S” in the ABS name!