Baroque Festival Concerts for 2019
Roots of Bach
I: The King of Instruments in the Age of Bach
Saturday, February 9, 2019 – 7:30pm
UCSC Recital Hall
John Schneiderman, Baroque Lute
Regarded as the noble instrument of Kings and Queens, the lute, a plucked stringed instrument, rose from its Medieval and Renaissance roots to its greatest development and appreciation during the High Baroque in Germany. Sylvius Leopold Weiss, J. S. Bach’s direct contemporary and friend, had command over all other lutenists and lute composers. Our opening offers seductions and guilty pleasures for 13-course High Baroque lute by Bach, Weiss, Adam Falckenhagen and Johann Kropfgans.
A meet-the-artist reception follows for donors and subscribers.
A pre-concert talk begins 45 minutes before each concert.
Sunday March 3, 2019 – 3pm
UCSC Recital Hall
The Virtu Ensemble:
Claudia Gantivar, Recorder
Angelique Zuluaga, Soprano
Cynthia Black, Violin
Frederic Rosselet, Cello
Bernard Gordillo, Harpsichord
Revel in the sensuous early and mid-Baroque Italian melodies of Frescobaldi and Corelli that Bach spent his youth emulating, along with glorious chamber works and a joyous cantata by his best friend Georg Phillip Telemann.
A pre-concert talk begins 45 minutes before each concert.
Saturday, March 23, 2019 – 7:30pm
Peace United Church of Christ
Margaret Martin Kvamme, Organ
Vlada Moran, Organ
The Abendmusik public concerts in the candlelit Marienkirche in Lübeck, played by the organ virtuoso Dietrich Buxtehude, were a fascination to the 20-year-old J. S. Bach. He is said to have walked 280 miles each way to hear Buxtehude, and angered his employer back home because he stayed several months “to comprehend one thing and another about his art”. We share Bach’s fascination with the kaleidoscopic effects of not only Buxtehude but also of Abendmusik founder Franz Tunder, another colorful figure of the early North German baroque. Two virtuoso organists play masterworks such as Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D Minor along with seldom-heard treasures by Bach’s teachers Johann Adam Reincken, Georg Böhm and Nicolaus Bruhns.
A pre-concert talk begins 45 minutes before each concert.
IV: Bach & the Virtuoso Violin
Sunday April 14, 2019 – 3:00pm
UCSC Recital Hall
A pre-concert talk begins 45 minutes before each concert.
UCSC Recital Hall
Ben Brady, Bass-Baritone as Herr Schlendrian, the vengeful father
Lars Johannesson, Baroque Flute, with The Festival Baroque Strings
By the 1720s, thrill seekers all over Europe were seduced into indulging in coffee, which proved to be utterly addictive to both sexes, leading to the establishment of coffee-houses with musical entertainments. In 1729, J. S. Bach took over the lively social music scene at Zimmerman’s Coffeehouse in Leipzig, where his Collegium students gave informal concerts. Coffee-addiction led to many a family quarrel, as chronicled in Bach’s hilarious Coffee-Cantata, which we’ll memorably perform. Toward the end of Bach’s 20 years at the coffeehouse, a promising young composer was on the scene: Johann Goldberg! Don’t miss this rare chance to hear his remarkable music!
A meet-the-artist reception follows for donors and subscribers.
A pre-concert talk begins 45 minutes before each concert.
Anonymous 18th Century painting thought to be Sylvius Leopold Weiss
 
 
 
 
 
Allegory of Virtue, ca 1634
by Simon Vouet (1590—1649) Musée du Louvre, Paris
Interior of the Antwerp Altarpiece from Marienkirche, Lübeck, 1518–22
after a portrait of J. S. Bach ca 1745 by Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1695–1774), caffeinated The Bach Archive, Leipzig, Germany