Stripped Down Bach with ABS

The American Bach Soloists completed their season last week with performances of three early church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composer wrote more than 200 of these short (20-30 minute) pieces for small orchestra, a few soloists, and chorus, and they can be performed with any number of musicians. For instance, there are close to a dozen renditions on YouTube of the first piece on the program, the 1707 Christ lag in Todesbanden (Cantata 4), and they all sound very different depending on the size of the chorus, whether the instruments are period or modern, and the age and gender of the soprano soloists in music that was originally written for boy sopranos.

ABS Artistic Director and conductor Jeffrey Thomas went with a pared down ensemble consisting of less than a dozen instrumentalists supporting four soloists for both individual arias and as the chorus besides. Personally, I missed the pleasing mixture of soloists, chorus, and instrumental interludes, but seemed to be in the minority on that account because I heard a number of audience members exclaiming how wonderful it was to hear the choral vocal lines being so transparent.

It helped that the four soloists for the program were all very good, including baritone David McFerrin (top left) and tenor Steven Soph (top right).

The real stars, though, were soprano Elijah McCormack (top left) and countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingzon (top right), whose voices had a plaintive beauty that was remarkable.

The transgender Elijah McCormack was especially notable, with a small, pure but resonant voice that sounded something like a cross between a boy soprano and an adult female soprano. For early music, which was written when women were forbidden from performing in public, McCormack's voice is just about perfect. My only complaint is that there were no solo arias for him in the three cantatas because we all wanted to hear more.

The second cantata on the program was the 1708 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (Cantata 106), which treated the usual small subjects of God and Death. (Pictured is violinist Toma Iliev getting a breath of fresh air at intermission.)

After the break, there was a performance of the Brandenberg Concerto #6, which sounded a bit anemic with the small forces.

However, the concert ended triumphantly with the 1714 Himmelskonig, sei willkomen (Cantata 182), depicting Jesus on his donkey entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a very happy affair.