Seasonal German Baroque Music from ABS

Participants (clockwise from the upper-left corner) Mark Bonney, Nola Richardson, Jeffrey Thomas, Curtis Streetman, Jay Carter, and Elijah McCormack (from the ABS Calendar Web page)

At the end of this month, American Bach Soloists (ABS) will present a program appropriate for the Lent season. Four soulful and moving compositions will be presented, each by a different prominent German composer from the Baroque period. Five vocal soloists will contribute to the performance: soprano Nola Richardson, male soprano Elijah McCormack, countertenor Jay Carter, tenor Mark Bonney, and bass Curtis Streetman. As always, Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas will conduct.

The program will begin with the least familiar of the four contributing composers, a the ten-movement composition by Johann Theile entitled PASSIO, Domini nostri Jesu Christi (the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ). This will be followed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 196 cantata Der Herr denket an uns (the Lord is mindful of us). Those are the first words of Psalm 115; and the cantata was probably composed to celebrate the wedding of the minister who had married Bach and his wife, Maria Barbara. However, the words of that Psalm are appropriate for meditation during Lent. A far darker meditation is inspired by Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ lay in the bonds of death), a seven-movement cantata by Johann Pachelbel composed for a ten-part ensemble. The program will then conclude with Dieterich Buxtehude’s setting of the Eastertide chorale “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesus, my joy).

The San Francisco performance of this program will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 27. It will take place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of Franklin Street. The eastbound Geary Bus (number 38) stops within a block of the church after it leaves Geary Boulevard to proceed along O’Farrell. There are also nearby stops for buses on Van Ness Avenue.

Ticket prices are $101, $77, $56, and $39, with seating for the disabled priced at both $101 and $39. All tickets may be purchased through an ABS Web page. That Web page includes an interactive display for checking where seats are available in each of the four sections. The checkout process will include a display of safety policies, and an agreement must be affirmed before the transaction is completed.