SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Other Links

Editorial Board

Google Site Search

Johann Christoph Bach and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: Julia Doyle, Katherine Fuge (soprano), Clare Wilkinson (alto), Jeremy Budd, James Gilchrist, Nicholas Mulroy (tenor), Matthew Brook, Peter Harvey (bass), The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, Cadogan Hall, London, 16.4.2009 (GDn)

Johann Christoph Bach:
Aria: Mit Weinen hebt sich's an
Lament: Wie bist du denn, o Gott
Motet: Der Gerechte ob er gleich zu zeitlch stirbt
Lament: Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte
Dialogue: Herr wende dich und sei mir gnädig
Motet: Fürchte dich nicht
Dialogue: Meine Freundin, du bist schön
Aria: Es ist nun aus 

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer:
Pastorella à 2 violini


When you have lived with Johann Sebastian Bach as long as John Eliot Gardiner has, it is only proper to make the acquaintance of the relations. Johann Christoph Bach was Johann Sebastian’s first cousin once removed. His place in the history books is secured by the formative influence he exerted on the young JS, but is this retrospective significance enough to justify an entire concert devoted to an otherwise obscure 17^th century Kapellmeister? 

John Eliot Gardener really wants us to like this music and he is the best advocate it could possibly have. His interest is, of course, based on the JS connection, but his introductions to each of the works were all about pointing out the music’s intrinsic qualities, not its later significance. By the standards of his contemporaries, Johann Christoph was a talented composer, but with a tendency towards grounded, definite textures rather than elaborate melodic invention, more Pachelbel than Buxtehude. Harmonically, the principles of tonality are firmly fixed, although the music’s antiquity is demonstrated by its limited reliance on definitive final cadences. The bass lament Wie bist du den, o Gott, for example, concludes with a perfect cadence, but without any textural buildup or preparation, as if the final chord sequence were arbitrary. Counterpoint, such as it is, rarely extends beyond simple canonic imitation between the singers. Unlike his more famous relative, Johann Christoph appears to have considered polyphony a means to an end when writing for voices rather than a virtue in its own right.

Only a small number of his works survive (roughly 80% was presented here), and Gardiner has made an excellent job of structuring a programme from this limited repertoire. The first half consisted of funerary settings, the second of more upbeat material. The lamentations of the first half were on the unremitting side. Apologies to this effect were printed in the programme, and a single, short work by another composer was included by way of an interlude. This was the Pastorella by the Viennese Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, elegantly played by the two violinists with continuo accompaniment, but otherwise inconsequential.

For all his stylistic directness, Johann Christoph has a habit of stretching his singers, generally maintaining a comfortable status quo, but regularly inserting nasty surprises of tessitura or ornamentation. Low bass and high soprano extremes were dealt with expertly, if not exactly comfortably by Matthew Brook and Katherine Fuge respectively. Dense melismatic ornamentation is also imposed on otherwise straightforward word setting as if to catch the singers off guard. The result is almost always an awkward stylistic juncture, suggesting a smoother transition could be achieved by singing either the lament faster or the ornaments more freely. 

Solo, and occasionally duet, violin accompaniment is a recurring feature, particularly in the laments of the first half and the dialogues of the second. They are never really obligato parts for there is no sense of contrapuntal interplay with the voices. Instead, they interpolate the singer’s phrases, imitating and often elaborating with distinctively angular ornamentation. The violinists, Maya Homburger and Kati Debretzeni, collaborated effectively in this role, affording the music its full measure of lyricism but also relishing the resonant textures of its regular forays into the instrument’s lower register. The instrumental ensemble fielded by the English Baroque Soloists consisted of a small string section including viols and a lute and keyboard continuo. They played to a high and consistent standard, but were comprehensively outclassed by the vocalists. These eight singers, all regular John Eliot Gardener collaborators, came very close to perfection in their style, balance and ensemble. The programme was framed by two unaccompanied arias for the ensemble, and in both the choir synchronised in a way that few others could match. 

The highlight of the second half, indeed of the entire concert, was the ‘dialogue’ Meine Freundin, du bist schön. This slightly risqué occasional work, written for a wedding within the Bach family, starts out as the story of a secret assignation, two lovers escaping to a garden in search of privacy. They are rudely interrupted, and the whole scene transforms into a knees-up and then, inexplicably, into a religious devotion with a concluding choral. Incredibly, the entire text is biblical, taken from the Song of Songs, and employed here as an allegorical veil to the naughtiness, perhaps to spare our blushes. The musical variety within the work is in stark contrast to the bleak monotone textures that predominated in the earlier funerary settings. Johann Christoph was no great dramatist, but his sudden changes of tempo and mood afford the work a distinctively narrative progression. These were skilfully executed by the continuo section, particularly one tempo jolt midway through, accelerating the lute and harpsichord to a breakneck speed that both players took comfortably in their stride. 

But this proto-cantata is the exception to the rule with Johann Christoph Bach’s surviving music. These are works written to fulfil devotional functions, and appreciation of their musical value remains wholly dependent on an understanding of their original liturgical situation. Johann Sebastian’s music has the ability to communicate directly, even to those with no prior knowledge of its history or context. This, on the whole, does not.

Gavin Dixon 

This performance was recorded for a future release on the Soli Deo Gloria label.

^{Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page}