Live performance of large choral works is the guiding principle of the Santa Ynez Valley Master Chorale, an organization of volunteer vocalists who sing under the baton of organization director and conductor Chris Bowman. Especially rich in choral literature is the classical era, which Bowman has continued to program more and more, he explained. But a kind of pet obsession of Bowman’s, hailing back to the beginning of the classical era, is the Baroque period, the subject of the chorale’s upcoming concert Go for Baroque.
Two German composers stand out as the lions of the Baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, each gets his own half of the Master Chorale’s upcoming program on May 2 and 3, Bowman explained.
“Well, the first half is selections of Bach from various cantatas, sort of the best of the best, you could say,” Bowman said. “The second half is the third part of Handel’s Messiah, which is such incredible music, but most people don’t know a lot of the music from Part 3.”
Handel’s Messiah is often performed around Christmastime, Bowman explained, but the text in Part 3 is appropriate for Easter and springtime performances. The concert’s second half includes Part 3 of Messiah preceded by the famous “Hallelujah” chorus, which closes Part 2.
Several of the selections in the first half, featuring Bach, call on musicians beyond the Master Chorale and Orchestra. Vocal soloists Christine Hollinger and Nikolaus Schiffman will perform several arias from Bach’s cantatas as well as the epic Mass in B Minor. The two are also put to work for Handel’s Messiah.
“Christine Hollinger, she gets featured more, mostly because Part 3 has so many solos, and she has a beautiful lyric soprano voice,” Bowman said. “And with Nikolaus Schiffman, too, they are great soloists for Baroque music.”
The style of the Baroque era was dominated by polyphony, the idea that multiple melodies come together to create harmony, rather than simple chords supporting a single melody. This style especially lends itself to a choir divided into four sections, much like the string section of an orchestra, whose collected melodies weave a tapestry of lush and ever-shifting tonality.
Even after the intense polyphony of Bach and Handel’s time was no longer en vogue, reverberations of their style echoed through the eras that followed, especially in chorale works by composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and others.
“They’ve certainly stood the test of time,” Bowman said. “For me, it’s more than just reading notes off the page, it’s bringing the music to life and re-creating what they made so many years ago.”
The Santa Ynez Valley Master Chorale’s accompanying orchestra is arranged in the Baroque fashion, Bowman explained, to stay true to the practices of the time period, which include fewer musicians than modern orchestras. Staying true to historical performance practices is an exciting endeavor for Bowman and his ensembles, he explained.
“It’s exciting for me, from the historical perspective, realizing that at one time it was Bach or Handel who was doing this, performing this music for the very first time,” he said. “This could possibly be my most favorite concert of all time; I just love Baroque music, and with Bach and Handel, the chorale sounds great, the orchestra sounds great, and we have wonderful soloists—you can’t get much better.”
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2015.
