United States C.P.E. Bach: Mei Gui Zhang (soprano), Leah Wool (mezzo-soprano), Terrence Chin-Loy (tenor), Troy Cook (baritone), Bard Festival Chorale, American Symphony Orchestra / Leon Botstein (conductor). St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York, 24.1.2025. (RP)
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C.P.E. Bach – Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu Wq.240; Heilig Wq.215
When Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach died in Hamburg in 1788, he was more famous than his father, Johann Sebastian Bach. The son’s fame rested on his instrumental compositions, chiefly concertos, sonatas and symphonies, and his status as a pedagogue. His Essay on the True Art of Keyboard Instruments remains an authoritative text on keyboard playing and basso continuo.
Leon Botstein, however, focused on his neglected choral works and led soloists, the Bard Festival Chorale (BFC) and the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in two of the most important: Heilig for double chorus and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu. In his pre-concert remarks, Botstein said that this was the American premiere of the latter and, if so, it was long overdue. Both works proved to have compelling musical and dramatic interest and are not merely historical curiosities.
C.P.E. Bach recognized the quality of Heilig and believed that it would keep his memory alive after his death. Published privately in 1779, his wishes for the piece largely came true. Beethoven conducted Heilig in 1817, and it was performed well into the nineteenth century. Only with the resurgent fame of his father and the preeminence of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven did C.P.E. Bach’s music, including Heilig, lose its foothold in the repertoire.
Heilig begins with an ‘Einleitung’ or introduction, a short arietta for solo alto and strings. It introduces the choruses of ‘angels’ and ‘people’ who perform the rest of the piece accompanied by a full orchestra. The text is drawn primarily from the German versions of the ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Te Deum’, and it concludes with a magnificent double fugue sung by both choirs.
Mezzo-soprano Leah Wool, the soloist in the ‘Einleitung’, sang with earnestness and grace. Although Wool could be heard, she was poorly positioned. Front and center would have served her better, as it would have done for the soloists in Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu.
The chorus and orchestra, however, were well-positioned and could be heard to their fullest advantage. In the opening chorus, Botstein demonstrated a firm grasp of dynamics, crafting long phrases that began softly, built to a climax and then spun into near silence. Divided into ‘angels” and ‘people’, the BFC performed with clarity and exemplary articulation of the text, with the antiphonal effects produced by the two choirs replicating the composer’s intent. The final chorus gained brilliance from the ASO’s outstanding trio of trumpets.
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Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu was first performed in Hamburg on the Saturday before Easter in 1774. The two-part cantata reflects upon the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, and it is scored for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra. It was performed several times in Hamburg between 1778 and 1783. Mozart, who said of C.P.E. Bach that ‘He is the father, we are the children’, conducted three performances of the cantata in 1788.
With its progression of recitatives, arias and choruses, Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu resembles an oratorio structurally, but the text dictates otherwise. C.P.E. Bach and Karl Wilhelm Ramler, who wrote the libretto, referred to it as a cantata: a genre intended to be ‘the moral of a story, and not the story itself’, expressing the observations, reports, feelings and passions of the event depicted in the music.
Tenor Terrence Chin-Loy and baritone Troy Cook sang the dramatic recitatives which provide the framework. Cook was particularly effective due to his exemplary attention to the text and to a voice filled with emotion. He also shone in the arias, particularly with his robust singing in ‘Ihr Tore Gottes, öffnet euch!’ which proclaims Christ’s entry into heaven in the second section.
Chin-Loy similarly delivered the recitatives with authority but was heard to his best advantage in the arias. In the duet ‘Vater deiner schwachen Kinder’, Chin-Loy’s voice blended beautifully with that of soprano Mei Gui Zhang, creating a lyrical and emotion-laden prayer in which the supplicants beseech God for consolation with their tears.
C.P.E. Bach used solo instruments brilliantly in the arias. Flutist Keith Bonner and Rie Schmidt added grace to ‘Vater deiner schwachen Kinder’. Bassoonist Gina Cuffari lent depth and beauty with virtuosi playing to the bass aria, ‘Willkommen Heiland! Freut euch, Väter!’. Gareth Flowers’s trumpet blazed gloriously, whether a soloist or the chorus was singing of Christ’s triumphs.
As in Heilig, the fugues were executed with precision at brisk tempi. The finest choral writing came in the final chorus, ‘Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen’. The BFC declaimed the recitative-like passages with precision and bloomed gloriously in the final fugue, capped by a resounding final ‘Hallelujah’.
Rick Perdian