REVIEW: Berkshire Bach Society, "Bach at New Year’s"

Academy of Music, Northampton, MA

https://berkshirebach.org

December 30, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

The Berkshire Bach Ensemble brought their customary flair and polish to Johann Sebastian Bach’s six “Brandenburg” concertos on the opening night of their annual three-day New Year’s concert series, with repeat performances in Great Barrington, MA and Troy, NY.

The program was led by Eugene Drucker, Artistic Director of the ensemble (and a founding violinist of the Emerson String Quartet), whose twenty-two members this year ranged from veterans of several decades to six debuting players.

Kenneth Weisse

Bach wrote these concertos separately over five years but published them together in 1721 to fulfill an overdue commission for the Margrave (Governor) of Brandenburg. Each is written for a different combination of instruments and features multiple soloists. Usually sequenced for dramatic effect when played as a set, the first, fifth, and third concertos preceded an intermission, and the fourth, sixth, and second closed the concert.

First-time ensemble member Yevgeny Kutik was a fiery violin soloist in the large-scale first concerto. The fifth concerto featured virtuosic solo turns by three ensemble veterans: expressive violinist Laura Lutzke; elegant flutist Judith Mendenhall; and protean harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss, who dispatched the taxing first movement solo cadenza with dexterous aplomb. The third concerto, for strings alone, offered an expanded slow movement and lustrous solos from veteran violinists Drucker, Lutzke, and Brunilda Myftaraj.  

Weiss returned to close the intermission with an entrancing take on the beautiful slow aria that opens and closes Bach’s hour-long “Goldberg” Variations for solo keyboard. 

The fourth concerto opened the program’s second half with sprightly solo performances by violinist Drucker and flutists Mendenhall and Berkshire Bach veteran Alison Hale. The sixth concerto, scored for strings without violin and harpsichord, showcased graceful solos by veteran ensemble violists Liuh-Wen Ting and Ronald Gorevic, principal viola of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. The second concerto, with standout solos by two more ensemble veterans, oboist Keve Wilson and trumpeter Maximilian Morel, ended the evening in a burst of joy.

The packed house loved every minute of this two-and-a-half-hour show in the warm Academy with exceptional acoustics. Kudos also go to double bassist Peter Weitzner for his resonant support throughout the concert and to Berkshire Bach Executive Director Terrill McDade for a model program book.

 

The Berkshire Bach Society next concert will be on February 8, 2025.