CBS Begins Season with Splendid BWV 232

Last night the California Bach Society (CBS) launched its 53rd season at the San Francisco Conservatory Music (SFCM), which provided not only the venue but also participation. The program was devoted entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 232, usually given the title Mass in B Minor. Both the choir and the orchestra included SFCM string players and graduates, and several of the seven vocal soloists were graduates. The complete roster of vocal soloists consisted of two sopranos (Victoria Fraser and Morgan Balfour), countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingzon, two tenors (Edward Betts and David Taylor Siegel), bass-baritone Chung-Wai Soong, and bass Adam Cole. The conductor was CBS Artistic Director Paul Flight.

As was observed in the Program Notes by Barbara Davidson, the music, taken in its entirety, was not originally intended for performance. Most likely, it is one of several works that Bach composed for pedagogical purposes. Thus, BWV 232 is closer “in spirit” to the BWV 1080, The Art of Fugue, than it is to any of the many sacred cantatas composed for performance during Lutheran church services. Nevertheless, whether or not BWV 232 was meant only to be studied, it gradually worked its way towards performance, initially through individual sections and eventually in its entirety, which did not take place until 1859 in Leipzig.

These days we expect BWV 232 to be performed in its entirety, usually in a secular setting, rather than a sacred one. There is much to appreciate without any deep understanding of the Latin text. The choral passages present some of the most sophisticated polyphony in music history, more often than not having little to do with the texts being sung. The arias and duets explore the interplay of vocalists interleaved with instrumental solos for strings, winds, and brass. One might almost say that Bach created the work in its entirety as a personal curriculum vitae, a retrospective view of the diversity of his broad capacity for composition.

In that respect one could probably argue that last night’s “academic” setting could not have been more appropriate. Indeed, the experience almost felt as if each of the individual movements was teaching the listener about a different aspect of Bach’s talents as a composer. From that point of view, it would fair to say that all the instrumentalists and vocalists, under Flight’s guidance, provided a generous and stimulating account of all of those aspects. By the time the performance reached its conclusion, I suspect that all of us departed with a satisfying feeling that we had learned a thing or two.