EUGENE, Ore. — In its 54th year, the Oregon Bach Festival has emphasized J.S. Bach once again after several years of drifting aimlessly with shows that had little to do with the man and his music. The appointment last year of Jos van Veldhoven and Craig Hella Johnson as co-artistic directors helped to realign the festival with its Bach-centric mission.
Both men have deep roots in the Bach world — van Veldhoven with the Netherlands Bach Society and Hella Johnson with the Victoria Bach Festival. So this year’s Oregon edition, aptly titled “Uncovering Bach,” featured one or more Bach pieces on nearly every concert during the three jam-packed weeks.
I was able to attend three events, beginning with the Grant Us Peace performance July 10 in Silva Concert Hall. Curated and conducted by Hella Johnson, the program featured gems by Arvo Pärt, Bach, Jessie Montgomery, Samuel Barber, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Pärt’s Credo jump-started the concert about a minute into the piece with an explosive sforzando that contrasted vividly with a passage from Bach’s Prelude in C (from The Well-Tempered Clavier) — played with tenderness by pianist Awadagin Pratt. The Oregon Bach Festival Modern Orchestra, OBF Chorus, and University of Oregon Chamber Choir also unleashed a powerful sonic cacophony — symbolizing the struggle between good and evil — and it was a terrific relief to hear Bach once again as the piece resolved to a quiet and sublime closing.
Reinforcing the feeling of peace, the choirs sang “In human life, such beauty” — with text by Euan Tait — to the tune of the “Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded” chorale from the St. Matthew Passion. This segued seamlessly to Pratt’s playing of the Largo from Bach’s Concerto No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1056. Later, the audience joined the choirs in singing “Who has given us this loving?” with new words, by Tait, to the familiar “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” To this participant, the alternate text was a bit vague and unsatisfying.
Montgomery’s Rounds elevated the atmosphere with Pratt and the orchestra creating a hypnotic maze of patterns. Toward the end of the piece, the pianist delivered an intoxicating cadenza in which he crushed cascades of notes with the side of his hands, creating a series of wonderful overtones.
The choirs and orchestra combined for a heartfelt performance of Barber’s Adagio for Strings in his arrangement that includes the Agnus Dei. It was followed by an ardent rendition of Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem that featured soprano Celena Shafer and baritone Elliot Madore. Madore’s voice had plenty of gravitas for the tragic verses that Vaughan Williams took from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Shafer’s pleas for peace shimmered in her upper range, but her low notes got swamped by the orchestra.
Throughout the concert, the choirs sang with terrific diction, expression, and balance, showing off one of the hallmarks of the festival. Hella Johnson and forces gave an outstanding performance that was deserving of a larger audience.
The next evening (July 11), I heard the West Coast premiere of the Markus Passion in the Soreng Theater. British musicologist Malcolm Bruno reconstructed the Passion, which tells of the events leading up to the death of Jesus according to the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. Although it is known that this work was performed in 1731 and 1744, Bach’s score has been lost.
Bruno based his reconstruction on an extant libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici) and on research by scholars who agree that the Markus Passion is a parody work, meaning that Bach used pre-existing compositions in its construction. They have determined that the instrumentation and text for arias match up fairly well with Bach’s Trauerode (Funeral Ode, BWV 198). Borrowing musical styling from that piece, Bruno created the Markus Passion, which was given with strong dramatic flair by a quartet of singers, a narrator, and the Oregon Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra under Julian Perkins.
Yet this Markus Passion offered no recitatives or selections for a choir. All of the arias and chorales were done by the four singers. Some text was spoken by them, but the narrator had the vast majority. The cast interacted with each other, using only a few chairs, a table, and a some props. The piece ran 90 minutes with no intermission.
Stage direction by Bill Barclay and associate director Roxanna Myhrum enhanced the production. The only thing that I didn’t care for occurred after Jesus was given a sponge of vinegar while on the cross: He held the staff (while seated), and that made him look like Poseidon. A handout with the text and translations was a nice idea but became irrelevant after the lighting for the audience was turned off.
Joseph Marcell, a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and known to American audiences for his role as the butler on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sitcom, superbly narrated the story. He transitioned into the role of Jesus smoothly, and his diction was crystal clear.
The four singers spoke the roles of the high priest, Pontius Pilate, Christ’s disciples, and the crowd. They conveyed the Last Supper and other significant events — alternating between speech and singing with well-blended choruses and individual arias.
Soprano Pascale Beaudin excelled with her acting, especially as Peter. Later, her “Welt und Himmel” (World and heaven) aria radiated optimism, accompanied by the energetic playing of violinist Marc Destrubé. Countertenor Cody Bowers needed more power for the low range of “Falsche Welt” (Treacherous world), but his voice soared in “Mein Heiland” (My Savior), impressively holding several notes for a long time.
Tenor James Reese implored “Erbarme dich” (Have mercy) with stunning sensitivity, complemented by the evocative tones of flutist Bethanne Walker. Walker and oboist Debra Nagy enhanced the feeling of disconsolation while Reese sang “Mein Tröster ist nicht mehr bei mir” (My comforter is no longer with me). Bass Jonathan Woody expressed emotional depth with crisp diction and in his richly resonating “Herr, so du willst” (Lord, as you will). His “Es ist vollbracht” (It is finished) added wonderfully to the solemnity of the story.
Alternating between the harpsichord and a portative organ, Perkins conducted with verve. Because he was positioned on the left side of the stage, allowing the singers and the narrator to be front and center, he would occasionally rise to his feet to make sure that the orchestra and singers stayed together. That worked splendidly, and the final choral numbers were followed by a standing ovation.
I returned to the Soreng Theater on July 12 for Jeff Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane, which received an invigorating performance by the Imani Winds, the Harlem Quartet, poet A. B. Spellman, and a jazz piano trio. Spellman is the former deputy director of the National Endowment for the Arts and a founding member of the Black Arts Movement.
Although it has been described as an oratorio, Passion for Bach and Coltrane does not contain any singing, yet it delivered an mesmerizing blend of music based on Bach’s Goldberg Variations and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme album plus text from Spellman’s Things I Must Have Known. Scott, who played horn in the Imani Winds for 20 years, wrote Passion for Bach and Coltrane in 2015. The 2023 recording won the 2024 Grammy award in the Classical Compendium category.
In his opening poem, Spellman wondered about a jam session that would result from Bach and Coltrane meeting in heaven. I noticed that Spellman would lightly tap his right foot while the wind quintet and the string quartet eloquently offered the Aria theme from the Goldberg Variations. Scott deftly melded Coltrane-inspired jazz elements with various Bach melodies, creating atmospheric moments that paired up very well with Spellman’s words.
The movements “Psalm” and “Resolution” breezily accompanied Spellman’s musings about his death in the future, predicting that he will “dance his way out.” The “Out of Nazareth,” Parts 1 and 2, contained blasts and harsh sounds that matched up with Spellman’s gruesome description of crucifixions.
As the piece progressed, the 12-member ensemble continued to mash together elements of Bach and Coltrane, with more emphasis on the latter. Highlights of those movements included spirited improvisations by drummer Neal Smith, pianist Alex Brown, violinist Ilmar Gavilán, hornist Kevin Newton, bassist Edward Pérez, flutist Brandon Patrick George on the piccolo, and oboist Mekhi Gladden. But the wildest solo came from clarinetist Mark Dover, who thrilled listeners with his over-the-top playing, which included emphatic, stratospheric high notes.
In the final movement, “Acknowledgement,” all of the players chanted “A Love Supreme” in a repetitive sequence that wrapped up the piece in a gentle, colorful bow. The audience responded with cheers and thunderous applause, and I began to wonder what the next mashup between Bach and another genre might be.
