Bachfest 2011 – Our 21st

BACHFEST ARTISTS 1990-2011

FESTIVAL THEMES 1990-2011 doc

Joh. Seb. Bach: The Composer’s Art

2-10 November 2011                                                                                    Wednesday 2 November at 7.30pm                                                                Wax Chandlers Hall, 6 Gresham Street, London EC2                           (St. Paul’s tube)

Steven Devine plays The Goldberg Variations  BWV 988            (Clavier-Übung IV, published 1741)

Steven’s recently released recording of this famous set of variations dating from 1741 that form Bach’s Clavier-Übung IV  has been greeted with great critical acclaim. The performance  to open the 21st Bachfest will be given in the intimate period surroundings of the Wax Chandlers Hall, at the heart of the City of London.  

Friday 4 November  from 1.00pm                                                        Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1       (Russell Square tube)

A BACH DAY at the FOUNDLING MUSEUM

Rodolfo Richter (violin)  plays                                                                        Bach: Sonatas for violin and harpsichord  (Part 1)                               with James Johnstone (harpsichord)                                                     Sonata No 5 in F minor BWV 1018                                                                         Sonata No 6 in G major BWV 1019                                                                         Sonata No 3 in E major BWV 1016                                                                              (Part 2 at 7.45pm at The Bach Club)                                                               

followed at 2.45pm by                                                       

The Bachfest Lecture                                                                                                 ‘The Mass in B Minor and Bach’s ongoing and unstoppable compositional urge’                                                                                                 delivered by Professor John Butt  

The Bachfest Lecture will be delivered by a contemporary world authority on the music of Bach, Professor John Butt. The 2011 recipient of the RAM/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize, John also directs the exciting Scottish ensemble The Dunedin Consort whose recent recordings of the Mass in B minor and St. Matthew Passion have been so enthusiastically received. We are assured a lively and stimulating hour to whet the appetite before our Singing Day.                     Ends c.3.45         

followed at 7.45pm by                                                                                                    

The 18-30 Bach Club

Rodolfo Richter (violin) plays
Bach: Sonatas for violin and harpsichord (Part 2)
with James Johnstone (harpsichord)
Sonata No 1 in B minor, BWV 1014
Sonata No 4 in C minor, BWV 1017
Sonata No 2 in A major, BWV 1015
 
LBS brings to The Bach Club the brilliant Brazilian-born violinist Rodolfo Richter, partnered by the outstanding harpsichordist James Johnstone. Rodolfo will record Violin Sonatas performed today early in 2012 as part of a dream project to record the entire Bach violin repertoire.  Bach Club members are being given a special sneak preview before he enters the recording studio – a rare opportunity to share an artist’s preparation for a major recording project.
Ends 8.45pm 
 
Saturday 5 November from 11.00am                                                   Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1           (Russell Square tube)
 
Singing Day - Bach’s Mass in B minor  BWV 232 
with Tim Brown
Director of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Zürich, English Voices and former Dir. of Music at Clare College Cambridge
 
Ashok Gupta Accompanist  
(Former Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge)
 
Singing Days have been a feature of  Bachfests and attracted large numbers. Tim has previously directed sessions on the Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio. For our 21st anniversary series, and in the ‘presence’  of Bach’s great contemporary Handel,  we shall re-visit and rehearse one of the best-loved Bach choral works that is also one of the most challenging to sing. Tim brings you vast experience in choral preparation and direction, and he joins us between engagements in the USA and in Switzerland, where he is now the first artistic director of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie. 
 
Tim writes ” This is music for everyone, for performers, listeners and scholars alike. What we perform, hear or read, is for each one to interpret anew. Each of us must decide for ourselves the significance of theology, philosophy and numerology in the B minor Mass….Like a small bulb in a vast room, no performance of this complex work can illuminate very corner. All we can do is reveal something of its immense colour and glimpse its core, for a brief moment illuminating the music, and in that moment to see it in a new light.”
Ends 5.00pm
  
Thursday 10 November at 7.30pm                                                                    St. John’s, Smith Square, London SW1                                                   (General Manager Paul Davies)
  
Joh. Seb. Bach The Composer’s Art
Cantata “Christus, der ist mein Leben” BWV95                                                   (Trinity 16, Leipzig, 12 September 1723)                                     
Violin Concerto in E major BWV 1042                                                                  Cantata “Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben BWV 8                     
(Trinity 16, Leipzig, 24 September 1724)                                      
Mass in G major BWV 236                                             
 
Rodolfo Richter 
Cecilia Osmond                                                                                 
Robin Blaze                                                                                                                    Nicholas Mulroy                                                                                                        
Giles Underwood
 
Steinitz Bach Players                                                                                        Anthony Robson (director)

Pre-Concert: Sir Nicholas Kenyon at 6.30pm                                  Nicholas Kenyon’s ‘Faber Pocket Guide to Bach’ published earlier this year is a rich compilation borne out of a lifelong passion for the composer’s music, an affection for it that infuses every page. In conversation with Margaret Steinitz, Nicholas Kenyon talks about changing Bach performance and compares Bach’s working environment with that of a composer today. Was it so different? What place will Bach’s music have in our lives in the future?”

Our 21st Bachfest is generously supported by private donors, Trusts and Foundations – The Bachfest Circle                                       Ticket income alone does not meet the whole costs of this well-received annual Bachfest. Therefore we rely on the generosity of donors and other private sources to bring you the very best.  We warmly thank everyone who has donated in 2011. If you would like to donate we invite you to visit the Bachfest Circle page. Call 01883 717372 to donate and make your Gift Aid Oral Declaration.

To join the LBS Members Circle we invite you to visit the Members page.  Memberships are available from £25.