Bach motets
Saturday 1 April 2023, 7.30pm
St Swithin’s, Bath
The four motets we are excited to sing in this concert — ‘Komm, Jesu komm’, ‘Singet dem Herrn’, ‘Jesu, meine Freude’ and ‘Lobet den Herrn’ — come from J S Bach’s productive time as Music Director at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig during the 1720s and 1730s. While he composed literally hundreds of cantatas for weekly Sunday services, the few motets he composed were for special occasions, with choral writing requiring bigger forces than for the majority of the cantatas.
As a listener we can hear Bach relishing his musical inventiveness — two choirs echoing each other, separating, contrasting, intertwining and then coming together, all driven by the text. He gives us canon, fugue and counterpoint as well as the grandeur and simplicity of the chorale. We are wrenched as listeners from the utter peace of ‘Gute Nacht’ (a joyful goodbye to worldly sin) to the stark ‘Trotz’ (defiance) in an instant. He even shows us a skipping triple time dance in the ‘Alleluia’ at the end of ‘Lobet den Herrn’.
Whether you are returning to well-loved and familiar pieces or whether these are new discoveries you are in for a feast of Bach in the stunning ambience of St Swithin’s Church.
Here is a review by Antony Corfe:
Like the sea, surging up to the shore followed by the quiet hiss of withdrawal. Like paintings in an exhibition, some with bold swathes of colour, others with delicate linework. Such thoughts tumbled round my head while Sarah Latto was conducting the Paragon Singers in another electrifying concert, this time featuring four of the six Bach Motets, with continuo provided by Richard Tunnicliffe ‘cello, and James Johnstone chamber organ.
Once more the question arises; what is it that underlies performance that can communicate with the soul of an audience? It’s a sort of undefined disclosure of the deeper sense of the timeless music that permanently surrounds us, but unheard except on such occasions as this performance. You only had to watch Sarah’s conducting and the faces of those on stage to see the mutual empathy and sense the way a magic was being wrought. You knew something rather special was taking place.
The concert started with ‘Singet, Singet’ punchy and full of good cheer. The next motet opened with beautifully delicate evocations, ‘Komm, Jesu, Komm’, and from start to finish through all four, there was always a feeling of the carefully considered word painting. This constantly reflected the changing scenes and moods of Bach’s writing in wonderful detail with beautifully textured and balanced arches of sound. It was exciting also to see the finely articulated exchanges between the two choirs when so divided.
An instrumental piece was placed between the first two motets; Bach’s Recorder Sonata in G major, BWV1035, eloquently played by one of the Singers, Kira Thomas, with organ and ‘cello accompaniment. This made for a lovely pause between the motets. And later, after the complexity and finely wrought contrasts between the eleven movements of ‘Jesu meine Freude’, Richard Tunnicliffe played the first movement of Cello suite No.2 in D minor, BWV 1008. This was followed by the final motet, ‘Lobet den Herrn’ with its joyful opening ascending and heart-warming arpeggios. A great evening to remember.
Antony Corfe