Arts & Entertainment

105th Bethlehem Bach Festival Starts Today

Bach Choir of Bethlehem's annual celebration of the 18th Century composer starts this afternoon at Lehigh University.

 

The 105th annual Bethlehem Bach Festival gets under way this afternoon with a lecture at Zoellner Arts Center and two concerts of Bach Cantatas at the historic Packer Memorial Church on ’s campus.

The festival runs through Sunday and returns next weekend on May 11 and 12. Tickets for all the shows are available and may be purchased at the door. For students, the price of all ticketed shows are $10, unless otherwise indicated.

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Schedule highlights:

  • 2 p.m. today and May 11 at the Black Box Theatre of Zoellner Arts Center -- The Distinguished Scholar Lecture, Nicholas Kenyon, Bach in the 21st Century: Kenyon is the former controller of BBC Radio 3 and is now managing director of the Barbican Centre, one of Europe’s largest multi-arts venues. He writes about music and the arts, and has published books on Simon Rattle, edited the influential Authenticity and Early Music, and wrote The Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart. In 2011 he published The Faber Pocket Guide to Bach. No tickets are necessary. Admission is free.
  • 4:30 p.m. today and May 11 at Packer Memorial Church -- Bach Cantatas: The great Reformation Cantata 79, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild will open this celebratory Festival – a rousing opening chorus with horns and timpani and Bach’s beloved setting of the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” are highlights of this masterpiece. Countertenor Daniel Taylor will be featured in Bach’s extraordinary solo Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust; and the concert will conclude with the great Easter Cantata 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden with the rich sound of trombones in Bach’s orchestra. Tickets are $28, $22 and $20.
  • 8:30 p.m. today and May 11 at Packer Memorial Church -- Bach Cantatas: This concert opens with Bach’s other great Reformation Cantata 80, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Hand-transcribed parts for this cantata, dated 1823, are in the Moravian Archives. Scholars agree that this indicates that Bethlehem was the earliest known site of Bach’s music in the United States, six years before Mendelssohn’s “revival” of Bach’s music in Europe. The program concludes with the beloved Cantata 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, again with trombones added to the rich orchestration of strings, oboes, trumpets and timpani. Tickets are $28, $22 and $20.
  • 10:30 a.m. Saturday and May 12 at Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center -- The Ifor Jones Memorial Chamber Music Concert featuring guitar soloist Eliot Fisk and the Bach Festival Orchestra in a performance of the rarely heard Concerto in A major by Italian composer Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). The program is bookended with two of Bach’s Orchestral Suites the Second Suite in B Minor, BWV 1067, featuring principal flautist Robin Kani, and the Third Suite in D Major, BWV 1068 with its immortal Air. Tickets are $27.
  • 10:30 a.m. Saturday and May 12 at Peter Hall, Moravian College -- Bach and the Art of the Dance: The Partitas for Harpsichord. Charlotte Mattax, virtuoso harpsichordist and favorite of Bach Festival audiences, plays a program of Bach Partitas. Tickets are $27.
  • 2:30 p.m. Saturday and May 12 at Packer Memorial Church -- The Mass in B Minor (Part 1); Part 2 begins at 4:30 p.m. both days. Bach’s Mass has been the heart and centerpiece of this festival since 1900. The was the first to perform this piece on this side of the Atlantic. Tickets are $57, $45, $40 and $20 for students.
  • 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Peter Hall -- The Young American Singer Competition. The ten young finalists of this national Bach vocal competition sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem each perform two Bach arias for a distinguished panel of judges. Admission is free.

For more information, see the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's Website.

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