Gli Angeli Genève highlights Bach festival
Ensemble finds meaning in classic works from German baroque figures
The third annual Vancouver Bach Festival moves into high gear this week with a particularly diverse assortment of music on offer, mainly at downtown’s Christ Church Cathedral.
Making a return visit is the group Gli Angeli Genève, which made its Vancouver debut last summer (Bach Cantatas: Actus Tragicus, Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral; and Bach — Trauer Ode BWV 198, Aug. 10, 7;30 p.m. at Chan Centre). The Angels were everything the early music audience could have wished for: fine singers, wonderful blend and an assured sense of style.
I asked Angels founder Stephan MacLeod if the group enjoyed the long trek from Geneva to the West Coast. Indeed they did, finding audiences here and in Victoria congenial.
“Bach’s St. John was particularly impressive because it was in a large hall with a big audience that was very enthusiastic. We were very happy to be there.”
Actually it wasn’t such a trip to the unknown as one might have assumed. The Geneva-based singers already knew many of the Pacific baroque musicians from previous work.
“So it was no problem to blend in. Early music is, after all, a small community worldwide,” said MacLeod.
Gli Angeli’s programs for 2018 zero in on the ensemble’s particular focus, the music of Bach and other German baroque figures. On Friday, that will be music by Bach and Telemann; bass-baritone MacLeod is featured in De Profundus: 17th Century Music for Solo Bass, (Aug. 7, 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral); then the festival winds up Aug. 10 with a grand performance of Bach’s extravagant Trauer Ode, BWV 198.
It’s a repertoire with particular resonance for MacLeod.
“We just finished a season which had three concerts in churches in cities where Bach worked. So we were playing the cantatas Bach wrote in his early 20s and his late 20s. All these pieces are very dear to me and I love performing them.”
Summer festivals are, well, festive and often there is a certain propensity for breezy summertime fare. That’s just not on for Gli Angeli or for the Bach Festival as a whole. There’s a lot of serious music on show and not just from the German baroque. (Britten’s unsettling masterpiece Abraham and Isaac will to be heard in a matinee performance Aug. 8, 1 p.m., Christ Church Cathedral.) But this is by no means music for just the cognoscenti.
When it comes to music of the 17th and early 18th centuries, we have to understand our attitudes toward big issues — mortality and faith lead the list — are not necessarily those of Bach and his contemporaries.
“From a pragmatic point of view, it is not difficult to understand why death was such a central concept at that time,” said MacLeod, adding infant mortality rates were appalling by contemporary standards.
“They loved their children just as much as we do today and death was constantly there in the 17th century. The tiniest virus arrived and half of the village would die. This is what people needed to hear about and to be helped with religious texts as a great comfort and consolation.”
This is the reason why MacLeod believes the music is still powerful and meaningful to us centuries later.
Because works often address ideas of death and mourning, this doesn’t mean the music is grim.
“Bach’s music is especially uplifting and joyous because he is a genius building cathedrals of sound in front of our very eyes. It’s extremely easy for him to deal with feelings and to follow the text that he is building upon.”
“Music,” said MacLeod, “has always been about helping people and transcending ourselves, helping us to cope with death and believe that there is something beyond it.” Not a bad message for any age.