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When Johann Sebastian Bach presented the Margrave of Brandenburg with the manuscript of six concerti for chamber orchestra, he wasn’t paid, thanked, or given a pie for his efforts. The concerti were, in fact, an application and résumé of sorts; Bach had applied for an organist job in Hamburg a year earlier, and the concerti were another attempt to land a new gig, though neither materialized. The six concerti ended up being sold by the Margrave’s estate with 170 or so other works by much more important composers like Brescianello and Valentini. Thus, the concerti were resigned to the dustbin of history until being published 130 years later and recorded another 100 after that.  

Musicologist Joshua Rifkin’s explanation as to why Bach’s reputation languished during his own lifetime is simple: his music was too hard. If that is the case, and my own experiences playing Bach tell me that it probably is, the Brandenburg Concertos (named so by Bach’s biographer Phillipp Spitta) are a perfect illustration of these difficulties. There are virtuosic solo parts that are as difficult as anything written in the subsequent 300 years, complex structures, counterpoint like none other; in short, the whole Bach enchilada. But ultimately they’re a test of how much a super-genius can do with fifteen or so stellar musicians in his neighborhood.

To that end, the musicians of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, opening the 2012 Bach Festival, succeeded in communicating the Bach-ian aspects. The evening was filled with sparkling individual performances: the mostly flawless pair of horns in the first concerto, the energetic string ensemble in the third, the rich and bright piccolo trumpet in the second. Harpsichordist Rebecca Bell, who generated a few audible gasps near me in her extended cadenza in the fifth concerto in spite of some missteps, brought the heat.

Any complaints I may have had with the evening largely rest with the festival’s honoree, Mr. Bach. The limitations on dynamics and expression of his time are, frankly, crippling to his art. It’s obvious that he is a master and blessed with a gift for counterpoint but when the hallmark of your works is the intricacy of the structures and the interaction of the musical lines it can be difficult to aurally appreciate in large doses. Analyzing Bach’s music is a revelation (just ask Mahler, who studied Bach’s counterpoint on his way to writing the amazing finale to the Fifth Symphony), but I left this concert wondering if it’s less a revelation to actually listen to. Various shades of mezzo forte are not enough for me, no matter how marvelously executed.

REVIEW:
Friends of Chamber Music and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Bach Festival 2012: The Complete Brandenburg Concertos
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Folly Theater
300 W. 12th St., Kansas City, MO
For more information, visit http://www.chambermusic.org 

By Erik Klackner

Classical Contributor

Erik Klackner loves music enough to try and write about it. After receiving a bachelor's degree in horn from the University of Kentucky and a master's in orchestral conducting from the University of Utah, Erik worked as a freelance musician in the Pacific Northwest before relocating to the Midwest. There is an 85% chance that he is engrossed is some random Varèse piece or Bruckner 9 as you are reading this sentence. His unedited thoughts can be read at klacknermusic.wordpress.com.

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