Bach Week Festival's 40th Season to Open April 19 in Evanston

The 40th annual Bach Week Festival, where listeners luxuriate in diverse works of Johann Sebastian Bach, will present a signature blend of solo, concerto, orchestral, and choral performances in concerts April 19 and 21 in Evanston and May 5 in Chicago, the festival's first foray into the Windy City.

Presiding over the proceedings will be Richard Webster, who helped organize and played harpsichord and organ in Evanston's inaugural Bach Week in May 1974 while still a music student at Northwestern University. Webster, now music director at Boston's historic Trinity Church, has served as festival music director since 1975.

Audiences will hear some J.S. Bach works performed as never before at the festival - on piano rather than harpsichord.

"At age 40, this is a music festival that still finds fresh ways to think inside the Bach," Webster says.

'Piano Will Be Forte' at Festival

The sound of the "modern" piano, or pianoforte, has almost never been heard at Bach Week, harpsichord being the norm for musical and practical purposes. The last and only other time festival-goers heard piano was at a concert in the 1970s, Webster recalls.

"At this year's festival, piano will be forte," Webster says. "It will be a powerful presence in two of the main concerts."

Festival concerts on Friday, April 19, and Sunday, April 21, feature world-renowned guest pianist Sergei Babayan, the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Gilliam Artist-in-Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, who has made the music of Bach one of his specialties. The Armenian-born, Moscow Conservatory-trained virtuoso won first prizes in the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition, the Scottish International Piano Competition, and others. He has studied with Helmuth Rilling, one of the world's greatest authorities on Bach's music.

At both concerts, Babayan will perform on the Hamburg Steinway grand piano at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.

Keyboard Concertos and a Cantata

The festival opens at 7:30 p.m. on April 19 with pianist Babayan and Bach Week Festival string players performing Bach's Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052; and Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056. Neither has been heard at the festival on piano. The highly virtuosic Concerto No. 1 remains the most popular of Bach's set of six keyboard concertos. In the Concerto No. 5, Bach enthusiasts might recognize a sumptuous melody from his Cantata BWV 156.

Variety being a hallmark of the festival, the April 19 program includes Bach's cantata "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen" (King of Heaven, Welcome), BWV 182. One of Bach's earliest cantatas, it features a sunny opening sinfonietta, a delightful opening chorus, and stirring and poignant arias. Soloists are Emily Lodine, mezzo-soprano; Hoss Brock, tenor; and Douglas Anderson, bass; with the Bach Week Festival Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Webster.

The opening night concert, sponsored in part by the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Chicago, will be at the Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.

French Delicacies Under Candlelight

Chicago harpsichordist Jason Moy, a Bach Week favorite, has prepared a French-flavored tribute to J.S. Bach for an intimate "Candlelight Concert" at 10 p.m. on April 19 in the lobby of the Music Institute of Chicago's Nichols Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
Titled "Bach, Couperin, and the German 'Art de Toucher le Clavacin," the 45-minute concert will explore the connection between J.S. Bach and the French harpsichord tradition.

"I will be playing music by three members of the Couperin family who were renowned for their expressive harpsichord playing, and whose art Bach and his German contemporaries revered and emulated," Moy says.

The program opens with a Prelude and Passacaille in C Major by the eldest Couperin, winds its way through pieces representative of both French and German keyboard traditions, and concludes with Bach's famous Prelude and Fugue from the "Well-Tempered Clavier," Book I.

"As if that's not sweet enough, concertgoers will also be treated to complimentary Belgian chocolates and French sparkling wine," Webster says.

Babayan Plays 'Goldberg Variations'

At 3 p.m. on April 21, pianist Babayan will play Bach's "Goldberg Variations," BWV 988, plus music by Franz Liszt and Olivier Messiaen, at a Bach Week Festival concert co-sponsored by the Music Institute of Chicago. The concert celebrates Bach Week's 40th season, the 10th anniversary of the Music Institute's Nichols Concert Hall, and the city of Evanston's 150th birthday.

"The work is a monumental catalog of musical styles and techniques of Bach's era, requiring masterful playing and athletic stamina," Webster says. "Each variation is an exquisite gem in itself."

The "Goldberg Variations" have been heard only once before at Bach Week, about a dozen years ago, in a harpsichord performance, according to Webster.

From the early 1800s through the 1960s, the "Goldberg Variations" would have been heard primarily on piano, Webster says. The late-20th century emphasis on historically-informed performances brought the harpsichord of Bach's day back to the forefront.

"The ebb and flow of musical fashion shows that Bach's music is so brilliant and timeless that it transcends the instrument or arrangement at hand," Webster says.

Prior to the "Goldberg Variations," Babayan will play Liszt's Ballade No. 2 in B Minor, a dazzling large-scale work; and Messiaen's meditative "Première communion de la Vierge" from his "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus."

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