October 12, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Bach Festival anniversary concerts at church on Hill
by MICHAEL CARUSO

Chestnut Hill maestro, Jonathan Sternberg, in a pensive mood in 2003.

The BachFestival of Philadelphia will celebrate its own 30th anniversary and the 15th anniversary of the death of its founder, Michael Korn, with a pair of concerts that recreate the first series of performances led by Korn three decades ago.

Chestnut Hill Maestro Jonathan Sternberg will conduct the Philadelphia Singers and the Bach Festival Orchestra in concerts Saturday, October 14, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 15, at 4 p.m. in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 22 E. Chestnut Hill Ave. in Chestnut Hill.

The Philadelphia Singers, America’s first all-professional choir, was founded by Korn in 1974 and was one of two local ensembles that formed the core of the Bach Festival. The other seminal ensemble of the Bach Festival was the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. That group has become the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and is now directed by Chestnut Hill’s Ignat Solzhenitsyn, who succeeded its founder, Marc Mostovoy.

When Korn launched the Bach Festival, it was centered almost exclusively in Chestnut Hill and it presented virtually all of its concerts during the fall season of the year, making it a true festival in the European sense of the term, with a focused repertoire, location and schedule. Korn also made use of the region’s own ensembles and soloists. He believed that Philadelphia’s resident classical music community was among the world’s most talented and reasoned that a festival highlighting the music of Johann Sebastian Bach would give area musicians the opportunity to play and local audiences to hear them in performances of this peerless canon of masterpieces.

When Korn relinquished the artistic reins of the festival after disagreements with portions of its board of directors, the organization moved from producing concerts to presenting them, hiring touring musicians to perform concerts for the festival. Programs were scheduled throughout the regular season, rather than only in October and November, and concerts were given all over the region, breaking the festival’s distinctive link with Chestnut Hill.

After years of nearly terminal decline, the Bach Festival has regained its artistic and geographic sense. The dynamic duo of artistic director Jonathan Sternberg and executive director Guido Houben re-established its links with local musicians and returned many of the concerts to Chestnut Hill.

The festival couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate maestro to inspire and oversee its musical renaissance than Sternberg. His pedigree stretches all the way back more than six decades to studying with Serge Koussevitzky during the early years at Tanglewood and later with Pierre Monteux at his conducting institute in Maine. Sternberg embodies the “apostolic succession” that keeps the tradition of classical music alive in our own time even though parts of the repertoire hark back nearly a thousand years. His commitment to passing on the wealth of knowledge was manifested in his many years teaching and conducting at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music.

Sternberg explained the choice of dates and repertoire as a replication of those first programs conducted by Michael Korn. For the concert on Saturday evening, the program will include the Motet No. 6 and the Cantatas Nos. 78 & 147. For the Sunday afternoon program, Sternberg will lead Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in G major with Charles Forbes as soloist, Handel’s Organ Concerto in F major with Michael Stairs as soloist, and the Divertimento in D major by Mozart.

“These are the exact programs Michael conducted,” Sternberg remarked, “and I feel that the Bach Festival — which was really the Bach Festival of Chestnut Hill in the beginning! — is hoping to rekindle the fire and the success of those early years.”

Sternberg continued by saying that the festival’s emphasis should always remain on the music of Bach and not succumb to the contemporary “celebrity syndrome” that focuses on the “star quality” of specific musicians rather than on the music, itself. He particularly noted the importance of introducing classical music in general and Bach’s music in particular to young people so that they grow up knowing and loving it.

“I remember hearing someone describing Bach’s music as ‘always turning’ when I was a boy,” he recalled. “That’s it, you know! Bach’s music is always moving. It’s not just a series of tunes. It’s always moving ahead, and that’s part of what gives you so much pleasure, either playing it or hearing it.” Bach’s ability to express the spiritual meaning of the texts he employed in his choral music plays no less important a part in the stature and reverence with which Bach’s music is held by musicians and audience members, alike.

For more information about the concerts on Saturday and Sunday or about the entire Bach Festival season, visit www.Bach-Fest.org.