“Bach is my God,” conductor Raphael Pichon said recently. And indeed, if youare St. Matthew Passion __you would almost believe that Bach is a prophet ofsalvation from above.
But that is not only due to Bach, Pichon and Pygmalion proved on Saturday. Inthe three-part series ‘De Wegen van Bach’, which Pichon will present in theAmsterdam Muziekgebouw in the coming months, he will put the spotlight onBach’s musical genealogy. To do this, he delved into the musical archives thatBach inherited from his father, and which he himself expanded further. Thecentral idea: Bach did not appear out of the blue, but was the result ofvarious musical influences. The musical family tree now started at the roots;Bach’s spiritual and literal ancestors.
Dedication
It is tempting to portray all those composers as mere preludes to Bach’sgreatness. So many musicians have studied Bach’s music that countlessbrilliant interpretations of his music are also available. Bach’s less famousrelatives do not have that privilege; confronted with a Johann Ludwig Bach, asa musician you almost have to start all over again. It sometimes leads to somebloodless performances.
You couldn’t blame Pichon for that. In his hands, all music seems to have beentouched by the genius of JS Bach. Devotion again characterized both hisdramaturgical programming — a kind of vespers service with rapid succession ofchoral parts, arias and recitatives — and the excellence of the EnsemblePygmalion.
Powder coating
The choral sound of Pygmalion alone is unique: mix the muscle power of JohnEliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir with the crystal tone of The Sixteen, add adash of Graindelavoix and you get a substance that is coarse and smooth at thesame time – like powder coating. In Pichon’s quiet tempi it was as if you wereallowed to touch every note.
Consistently strong was the music of Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), great-uncle of Johann Sebastian. An early highlight was his Herr, wende dich undsei mir gnädig. “My God, don’t take me away from half my life,” the ensemblegasped, as if it were his very last hope. “Hear me.”
The solo contributions were also exceptional. Countertenor William Sheltondrew tears with his rounded, emotional delivery, particularly in JohannChristoph Bach’s aria Ah, that ‘s Wassers gnug hatte. “If only I had enoughwater in my head to weep day and night,” reads the baroque text. Shelton bentwhat may sound exaggerated and crude into an alienating, lucid sadness.
Himmel, du weißt meine Plagen by Philipp Heinrich Erlebach was intended byPichon for tenor Zachary Wilder, who was unable to attend due to illness. Butreplacement Laurence Kilsby, accompanied on baroque harp, turned out to be anunexpected showstopper. Erlebach’s score is full of embellishments and melodicexcursions, but for Kilsby they always came as a surprise, as if he had torecite a poem, but was always too moved to continue reading.
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