The early music ensemble Upper Valley Baroque is marking their milestone fifth season this month with concerts in Rutland, Randolph, and Lebanon, NH. And they are celebrating with an all-Bach program, featuring the Easter Oratorio and the D major Magnificat setting. Vermont Public Classical's Helen Lyons chatted with artistic director and co-founder, Filippo Ciabatti to learn more.
TRANSCRIPT
FILIPPO CIABATTI: Well, we wanted to end this fifth season with a concert dedicated to Bach, which is how this ensemble really started. We thought, well, we're close to Easter, it's a celebration, so we wanna bring some celebratory works that Bach wrote. And so the Easter Oratorio of course made sense. And the Magnificat was for me an obvious choice because it is also one of the greatest works musically, but also a jubilant, festive work. The Magnificat is a prayer that usually we think about at Christmas, but it's really a prayer that is a festive prayer for all year in the Christian tradition, so we thought it was appropriate to pair these two pieces together…These are highly virtuosic pieces, you know, virtuosic for the trumpets, for example, virtuosic for the choir, virtuosic for the many solo instruments, so really they're grand works…This is one of our biggest, if not the biggest concert we've ever produced, with 50 people on stage coming from all over the country.
HELEN LYONS: I've been to quite a few of your concerts and one thing I always appreciate is your attention to performance practice, and that often gives a very different feel from a modern day orchestra concert. One interesting feature is the way the vocal soloists are integrated into the choir.
FILIPPO: One of the missions of the ensemble is to bring baroque music with original instruments and period instruments, which give a real sense of how this music must have sounded at the time. And in the vocal tradition, it was very much customary for different singers to take the roles of the different solos and do what we call the ‘step out’ solos, so the singers step out of the chorus, they sing an aria or a duet, and then they come back and sing in the chorus. So we are honoring the tradition with this concert that also gives to the listeners the opportunity to have a variety of soloists that they can appreciate as well as having a very strong choir because it really is a choir made by all great soloists.
HELEN: OK, so you just used the word 'role' to describe the soloists, that implies an almost operatic element to the works.
FILIPPO: So yes, Bach had a great strong sense of the drama. He was really a dramatist. You listen to his passions, they're really operas without being called so, but, but they're, they're really sacred operas. And his oratorios are the same thing. In the Easter Oratorio, we have four characters: Mary, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John. And they all sing different feelings and different moments, and that gives a real dramatic sense and arch.
HELEN: And does Bach link each vocal soloist to their own obbligato solo instrument?
FILIPPO: Absolutely he used timbres as much as musical writing to convey a message. Bach was very savvy in how to use the instruments and how to relate those instruments with certain dramatic effects.
HELEN: Changing tack a little - amidst these two larger, very celebratory works, you've included a funereal motet, The Spirit Gives Aid to Our Weaknesses. How did that piece make its way onto the program?
FILIPPO: This motet is very special and extremely beautiful. First of all, very complex. It's written for double choir, so eight voices that dialogue together. It's the only motet we know for certain where we have instrumental parts. In fact, we are going to play it with a reduced orchestra accompanying it. This motet talks about the spirit being a comfort to humans in times of need, how the spirit gives strength. So in a way there is a sense of joy and relief in the text of this motet which I thought even if it was written for a funeral is still an uplifting, hopeful piece. Bach was a very pious man. He was born and raised in the Lutheran tradition, and in that tradition what happened after death was almost a reward…a relief and a reward. So there is always this sense of, even in the most dramatic moments in Bach's music, there is also a second half of the drama that points to relief.
HELEN: Filippo, I want to congratulate you on five years of the Upper Valley Baroque. What are some of your thoughts on the last five years and what's ahead in the future?
FILIPPO: Well, first of all, thank you, and we're very excited that we have this benchmark. Upper Valley Baroque has been an incredible, incredible experience for me, and the amount of joy and love we got from this community is remarkable. What we've been able to achieve in these past five years, being able to bring the best musicians that operate in this field in the country here, is extremely exciting, and it's hopeful to continue this sort of work and to continue to expand these connections with the community, our musical offerings, and continue to attract the best possible soloists, musicians from all over…I really hope you join us this weekend. We look forward to seeing you, we can't wait to share this music with you.
HELEN: The Upper Valley Baroque performs their all-Bach program Friday, March 13th at Rutland's Grace Church, Saturday, March 14th at the Chandler Center in Randolph, and Sunday, March 15th at the Lebanon Opera House. For more information and tickets, head to uppervalleybaroque.org.
