Despite the deserved acclaim given to Bach's more monumental choral works, such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor, there are cogent reasons for believing that the best of his choral music is enshrined in the glorious sequence of cantatas he wrote during his years in Leipzig.
Thus two of these fine cantatas in the program that the Canberra Bach Ensemble presented on Sunday afternoon in St Christopher's Cathedral made a very welcome inclusion. And particularly so in the committed and beautifully expressive performances they received.
Bach's yearly cycle of cantatas, with a new work each week to reflect each Sunday's text, of necessity range widely in expression, and the first cantata on the program, Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht, with its stern warning to sinners, does not appear to offer great musical possibilities. Yet the text is clothed with a gently supplicatory opening chorus and a soprano aria which conveys the troubled conscience of the sinner, and concludes with a calming chorale of great beauty.
Then came the longer cantata, Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, which instructs the Christian to feed the hungry and care for the poor, and Bach moves here on to a larger canvas, with the orchestra taking a more important role. In each of these works the conductor, Andrew Koll, drew fine singing from the small ensemble of choristers, and well-balanced playing from the chamber orchestra.
The four soloists - soprano Helen Thomson, alto Peter Campbell, tenor Marco Agostini and bass Richard Anderson - also made firm contributions to the general excellence of the performances.
The third and final work was Bach's Missa Brevis in G minor, which consists only of a fugal Kyrie and a Gloria in which choral outer movements encase three solo sections for soprano, tenor and bass. It is music of gentle jubilation, and it received a suitably restrained but joyous realisation.
The Canberra Bach Ensemble was formed only earlier this year by Andrew Koll, and he has moulded it into a small but quality choral and instrumental body.
From W L Hoffmann's Music column, Canberra Times, 29 September 1999
Page created 25 April 2000; last updated 25 April 2000