A Celebration of Bach

Tonight’s program, A Celebration of Bach, includes several of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most loved and recognizable compositions representing some of the most popular musical genres of the Baroque period.

Beginning tonight’s program, and sprinkled throughout it, are three  “Sarabande and Figment” performances by members of the Grammy-award-winning Catalyst Quartet, from their 2023 Grand Canyon Music Festival concert at the Shrine of the Ages. Over three intervals, cellist Karlos Rodriguez performs three Bach Sarabandes — No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5;  and violist Paul Laraia performs three of his original Figments — No. 2, No. 4, and No. 6,  which are the only non-Bach compositions on tonight’s program.

Bach composed at least 39 sarabandes, which were slow elegant dances during the Baroque period, quite unlike the sensual, up-tempo Spanish dance they were based on. 

The late two-time Pulitzer-prize winning composer Elliott Carter wrote several “figments.” He described one he wrote for solo cello as having “a variety of contrasting, dramatic moments.” I think you will agree this is an apt description for Laraia’s figments as well.

Also featured on the first half of tonight’s program is the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra’s performance of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, one of the four orchestral suites Bach composed.  As with other Baroque  composers, Bach was greatly influenced by the music of the Italian-born French court composer for King Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Lully – who died two years after Bach was born. This is especially apparent in the stately first-movement Overture.  This suite’s second-movement Air is probably one of Bach’s most recognizable compositions. It was dubbed Air on a G String by 19^th Century violin prodigy August Wilhelmj, who discovered that when transposed to the key of C for violin and piano, the entire violin part can be played on the G string.  Robert Moody conducted this 2022 performance at La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church during the February 2022 Arizona Musicfest.

Our second half begins with more Sarabande and Figment performances by Rodriguez and Laraia, which precede and follow performances by guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery. Verdery performs his arrangements of three Bach selections from a 2019 ASU School of Music concert in Katzin Concert Hall. These include the Prelude from the Bach Cello Suite No. 6, the cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, or “God’s time is the very best time,” and the Allegro from Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro. Verdery is Professor of Guitar at Yale School of Music, where he has been since the 1980s.  Included among his many eclectic recordings and collaborations is one on which he plays this Allegro accompanied by rap singer Billy Dean.

Lastly, we bring you British pianist Martin James Barlett’s 2022 performance at the Tempe Center for the Arts presented by the Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series.  Barlett was the BBC Young Musician of the Year at age 15 and has since won many more honors. You will hear his performances of Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, or “I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ,” arranged by 19^th Century composer Ferruccio Busoni followed by the much-loved Jesu, Lord of Man’s Desiring, arranged by Dame Myra Hess. Barlett included both of these compositions on his 2019 debut album, Love and Death. Hess’s 1926 transcription, which is also when this movement from Bach’s Cantata No. 147 got familiar title, has contributed greatly to its revered status today due to the scores of performances and recordings it has inspired.