Details Finalized for ABS Subscription Series

Readers may recall that the full extent of the 31st season of American Bach Soloists (ABS) was outlined this past June. At that time a brief summary was provided of the dates and content of the annual Subscription Series, which is now known as the Connoisseur Series. As in the past, all San Francisco performances will be held at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church beginning at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. The conductor will be Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas. Programming for these concerts will be as follows:

January 26, Orphean Enchantments: The program is named after the legendary singer of Greek mythology, Orpheus; and, as a result, the featured soloist will be countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, distinguished as the recipient of the 2019 Jeffrey Thomas Award. Cohen will perform in Antonio Vivaldi’s setting of the Stabat Mater hymn, Dieterich Buxtehude’s Jubilate Deo setting of Psalm 100, Johann Christoph Bach’s solo cantata, the Lamento “Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte” (oh, that I would have enough water), and Melchior Hoffmann’s aria “Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde” (haste to strike, oh longed for hour), originally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and cataloged as BWV 53. There will also be instrumental soloists in a performance of Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1044 concert in A minor for flute (Sandra Miller), violin (Tekla Cunningham), and harpsichord (Gabriel Benton). The other instrumental selections will be a sonata in D major for gamba and violone and a concerto grosso in G major by Georg Muffat.

March 29, Faire is the Heaven: This will be a program of vocal music with seven vocal soloists adding their resources to those of the American Bach Choir. Among those soloists, tenor James Reese will be making his debut. The selections will consist of a variety of vocal invocations of Paradise. The major works will be Bach’s BWV 106 cantata, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the very best time) and the Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz. There will also be a cantata by Buxtehude, “Ich suchte des Nachts in meinem Bette” (I searched in my bed at night). Other vocal selections will be by Nicolaus Bruhns and Matthias Weckmann, along with the first of the symphonies composed by Johann Rosenmüller.

May 10, Sweet Harmony: The American Bach Choir will again be featured in the final program of the season. The soloists joining them this time will be soprano Yulia Van Doren, tenor Aaron Sheehan, baritone Mischa Bouvier, and also Gabrielle Timofeeva López, making her debut. The Bach selection will be the BWV 234 setting of the Mass text in A major. There will also be two selections by George Frideric Handel. López will sing the HWV 124 cantata “Look down, harmonious saint,” setting the words of Newburgh Hamilton from his “Ceclian Ode.” This will be followed by John Dryden’s more familiar ode honoring Saint Cecilia, which provides the text for Handel’s HWV 76 ode.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. There are a variety of options for purchasing tickets, all of which are available online through a single Tickets Web page on the ABS Web site. Subscriptions to the three concerts are being sold for $249, $189, $150, and $96. Single tickets are $98, $74, $56, and $38.