Preview: Bach Week Festival/“Yes, we cantata”

RECOMMENDED

The thirty-five-plus years since the Evanston-based Bach Week began have seen enormous changes to the Baroque landscape in the area; numerous early music ensembles who would perform Bach regularly have come and gone (City Musick, Basically Bach), or have remained, having abandoned their original missions and repertoires (Music of the Baroque).  Despite the annual spring Bach Week being recession-reduced to a mere Bach weekend and the bad puns that such desperate times apparently generate—this year’s festival is called “Yes, we cantata”—you’ll actually have more Bach for your buck than in past years since every piece performed this year will be by Johann Sebastian Bach rather than including generous helpings of music by his mediocre sons, contemporaries and influences.  Chicago keyboardist extraordinaire David Schrader will kick off this year’s two-concert festival on Friday night with a solo harpsichord recital that will include the Prelude & Fugue in a minor (BWV 894), the “Capriccio on the departure of his beloved brother,” the Toccata in c minor (BWV 911), the Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major (BWV 825), Variations on “O Gott, du frommer Gott,” (“O God, thou faithful God”) and the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue in d minor (BWV 903).  The Sunday night concert, co-sponsored by the German Consulate General and in part conducted by longtime Bach Week music director Richard Webster, features the joyous Easter cantata BWV 51 “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!” (“Rejoice unto God in all lands!”) with soprano Patrice Michaels and Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal trumpeter Christopher Martin.  CSO oboist Michael Henoch will be featured in the Concerto for oboe d’amore (BWV 1055), a baroque instrument that includes a bulb bell, and CSO cellist Katinka Kleijn will perform the First Cello Suite while the Bach Week Festival Chorus will be spotlighted in the Bach motet for double chorus, “Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf” (“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness”) and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 will close out the evening with David Schrader taking on the harpsichord solo.  (Dennis Polkow)

April 24 & 26, Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, (800)595-4849. 7:30pm.

Author: Dennis Polkow

Dennis Polkow is an award-winning veteran journalist, critic, author, broadcaster and educator. He made his stage debut at age five, was a child art prodigy and began playing keyboards in clubs at the age of fourteen. He holds degrees in music theory, composition, religious studies and philosophy from DePaul University in Chicago. Polkow spent his early years performing and recording in rock and jazz bands while concertizing as a classical pianist, organist and harpsichordist and composing, arranging and producing for other artists. As a scholar, Polkow has published and lectured extensively and taught at several colleges and universities in various departments. As an actor, narrator and consultant, Polkow has been involved with numerous films, plays, broadcasts and documentaries. As a journalist, Polkow helped co-create the experiential Chicago Musicale and Spotlight, the award-winning tabloid arts and entertainment section of the Press Publications chain of newspapers, which he later edited. He also created and ran the nationally recognized journalism program at Oakton College and was faculty advisor to its award-winning student newspaper; many former students went on to major media careers, including Channel Awesome’s the Nostalgia Critic. Polkow’s research, interviews, features, reviews and commentaries have appeared across national and international media and he has corresponded from the Middle East, Asia and Africa for the Chicago Tribune. Contact: dpolkow25@aol.com