If the headline didn't trigger your reaction, then here's mine: I can't think when was the last time I heard the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play an entire evening of Bach. Probably never.
Times have changed, and so have tastes in musical performance. The authentic performance movement, which was just getting under way as I grew up, has taken Baroque music, by and large, out of the domain of the large symphony orchestra.
There are good reasons for this shift. The "symphony orchestra" as we know it is a complete anachronism in Baroque music, which was typically played by much smaller, more streamlined ensembles. Nor is that the only reason. The lush, rich, Wagnerian power of the late nineteenth century orchestra fatally overloaded the open, airy textures of Bach's music, creating a thick, turgid sound which concealed rather than revealing the incredible complexity of the music.
Remember Stokowski's Bach transcriptions for a full symphony orchestra? Yes, like that.
But that was before the authentic movement. The combination of extensive and ongoing research, re-creations of period instruments, and totally new ideas of how to play Baroque music, the authentic performance movement now dominates Baroque music performance -- and music education. These days, musicians stretch their wings in all kinds of ways that their predecessors of half a century ago never could have imagined.
Today, the real anachronism would be to trip over an orchestra whose members had no experience with playing Baroque music in authentic style. The TSO's members can and do play Baroque music in an just this manner (albeit on modern instruments): lightweight, energetic, crisp, clean, and with full consciousness that every strand in the counterpoint matches in importance every other strand.
All of which is to say that the ensemble of twenty-some members of the Toronto Symphony who took the stage on Wednesday night at Roy Thomson Hall did the master full honour with sophisticated playing of a wide range of Bach's orchestral music.
This concert was being live streamed, but was attended live by a small invited audience of lucky patrons and donors. I was glad to be offered a chance to attend a live concert, and this one in the event proved to be extremely rewarding (yes, I am a donor). The current health restrictions give all the reason you need to produce an entire evening of Bach with the TSO -- this is one composer whose work can definitely be performed by an ensemble of twenty players, allowing for ample spacing among the musicians on the stage.
The evening opened with cellist Winona Zelenka's fluid, easy account of the well-loved prelude to the Suite No. 1 in G Major for solo cello, BWV1007.
After that delightful curtain raiser, the first main offering was the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049, for 2 flutes (originally recorders) and orchestra. In this work, Kelly Zimba Lukič and Leonie Wall combined mellifluous phrasing with nimble articulation to capture all the varying moods of the music.
The next item was a truly unique arrangement -- perhaps "speculative recomposition" would be a clearer term. It's been known for quite some time that the keyboard concerto, BWV 1053, involved a recomposition of movements from two cantatas, BWVs 169 and 49, which in turn were likely recomposed versions of an earlier woodwind concerto, now lost. This, by the way, was a far from uncommon procedure for Bach. Principal bassoonist Michael Sweeney has written out a conjectural version of that lost woodwind concerto, featuring the bassoon and oboe d'amore as solo instruments.
Everybody got that?
The combination of the bassoon and the mellow sound of the oboe d'amore created a fascinating interplay of textures, the total effect being much softer-edged and more lyrical than I expected. Sweeney's arrangement paid due attention to thinning out the orchestral textures whenever the bassoon was playing, although this didn't entirely eliminate the hazard of the lower-pitched solo instrument being swamped on occasion by the higher tones of the violins. All in all, a fascinating experience.
Another lollipop for the orchestra came in the form of the famous Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV1068 -- yes, that one, the one that is traditionally and laughably identified as the "Air on the G String." The legato string textures here were both full and lean in an ideal way.
Arguably the greatest of all Bach's works in the concerto grosso form is the monumental Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV1043. For the first movement of this piece, concertmaster and leader Jonathan Crow was joined by Chelsea Gu, making her debut with the TSO at a very tender age indeed, to judge by her diminutive size. She was selected by a jury of orchestra members from a large number of recordings submitted last year as part of an informal "Play Along" promotion held on video.
The key to this magnificent work is the interplay of the two violins, and that aspect of the musical partnership came across very clearly indeed. There was no doubt of Gu's technical prowess either. She will certainly be a name to watch as she continues to pursue her musical career.
Before the orchestra wrapped up the concert with the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV1047, Jonathan Crow gave a brief account of the work's unusual instrumentation for four solo instruments: a clarino trumpet in F (translation: stratospheric heights), a recorder which may actually have been a kind of experimental double flute, an oboe, and a violin. That fiendishly high and complex trumpet part is still considered one of the most challenging in the entire repertoire, although the other soloists in their various ways also get their skills stretched to the limit. Principal trumpet Andrew McCandless did the honours with flair and precision, making the music seem almost easy (no mean achievement). Oboe Sarah Jeffrey gave a sterling performance as well, to set alongside her equally lovely work in the recomposed version of BWV 1053.
To sum up: this was a particularly rewarding evening of Bach on modern instruments. The musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, whether as soloists or in ensemble, gave performances which partnered skill and beauty in equal measure. This concert was well worth the trip to Toronto!
