Event

Whidbey Island Music Festival Program III Bach Cantatas August 16

Ach, daß ich Wassers g'nug hätte Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)

Cantata 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Canatata 106 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit
J.S. Bach

Johann Christoph Bach, J.S. Bach's uncle, was the organist at St. Georg's in Eisenach where young Johann grew up. He was revered among the Bach family as a "profound composer". J.S. Bach contributed the following to his uncle's obituary ... he "was as good at inventing beautiful thoughts as he was at expressing words. He composed, to the extent that current taste permitted, in a galant and cantabile style, uncommonly full-textured... On the organ and the keyboard [he] never played with fewer than five independent parts". This wrenchingly expressive solo cantata for alto is among J.C Bach's few surviving works.

Bach's Cantata 106 begins with an opening Sinfonia scored for recorders, gambas and continuo, and is one of the most mournfully poignant works in all of the cantatas. Cantata 182 is a joyful celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.

Catherine Webster, soprano
Reggie Mobley, alto
Zachary Finkelstein, tenor
Charles Robert Stephens, baritone
Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin
Vicki Boeckman, recorder
Miyo Aoki, recorder
Beiliang Zhu, viola da gamba and baroque cello
Nathalie Mackie, viola da gamba
Todd Larsen, bass
Henry Lebedinsky, organ