Bach Festival of Charleston to take place March 4-6

Marijim Thoene received a D.M.A. in organ performance/church music from the University of Michigan in 1984. She is an active recitalist and director of music at St. John Lutheran Church in Dundee, Michigan. Her two CDs, Mystics and Spirits and Wind Song, are available from Raven Recordings. She is a frequent presenter at medieval conferences on the topic of the image of the pipe organ in medieval manuscripts.
Lisa Byers received master’s degrees in music education and organ performance from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Toledo, Ohio. She is retired from teaching music in the Jefferson Public Schools in Monroe, Michigan, as well as from her position as organist/choir director at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Tecumseh, Michigan. She subs as organist in the Monroe area.
Photo credit: Bela Fehe

The University of Michigan 49th Conference on Organ Music was dedicated to the memory of Robert Glasgow, brilliant organist and much loved professor of organ at the University of Michigan. The conference was truly a celebration of his life as a scholar, performer, and teacher. His raison d’être was music—organ music of soaring melodies and transcendent harmonies. He shared his passion with his students and has left a legacy that can be kept alive through generations of students who instill in their students his ideas.
During the conference, a wide variety of lectures were presented that reflected years of research, along with performances of four centuries of organ music. The conference was international in scope, with lecturers and performers from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Canada as well as the U.S. The themes of the conference focused on the influences of J. S. Bach and Mendelssohn’s role in arousing public interest in Bach’s music.

Sunday opening events
The initial event was an afternoon “Festival of Hymns” presented by the UM School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and the American Guild of Organists Ann Arbor chapter. Led by organist-director Michael Burkhardt, it featured the Eastern Michigan University Brass Ensemble, the Detroit Handbell Ensemble, and the Ann Arbor Area Chorus. Special care was taken to choose, coordinate, and connect music by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Charles Wesley. Many hymn verses and arrangement variations kept the presentation musically interesting and enjoyable. Dr. Burkhardt was masterful in his organ solos, accompaniments, improvisations, conducting, and composing. His leadership from the console was met with great enthusiasm from the appreciative, participating audience. (Review by Lisa Byers)
Sunday evening’s organ recital program featured music of Spain and France performed by musicians from the University of Michigan’s Historic Organ Tour 56 to Catalonia and France. Janice Feher opened with an excerpt from a Soler sonata. Gale Kramer performed the “Allegro Vivace” from Widor’s Symphony V, followed by Joanne V. Clark’s rendering of the “Adagio” from Widor’s Symphony VI. Mary Morse sang the versets of a Dandrieu Magnificat for which Christine Chun performed the alternate versets. Timothy Huth played a section from Tournemire’s In Festo Pentecostes, and Paul Merritt closed the program with the Dubois Toccata. The various composition styles, registrations, and favorable interpretations performed excellently and sensitively on the Hill Auditorium organ were well received and greatly acknowledged by the audience. (Review by Lisa Byers)

Monday, October 5
Jason Branham, a doctoral student of Marilyn Mason, set the stage for celebrating not only Mendelssohn’s two hundredth birthday but also his profound influence in bringing the forgotten music of J. S. Bach to the attention of Berlin and consequently to Western society. Branham’s program was a reprise of Mendelssohn’s Bach recital presented at St. Thomas-Kirche in Leipzig in 1840, performed to raise money to erect a monument to Bach in Leipzig: Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552; Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654; Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543; Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582; Pastoral in F Major, BWV 590; and Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Branham’s performance was exciting and earned him thunderous applause.
Christoph Wolff, Professor of Musicology at Harvard, eminent Bach scholar, and author of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, gave four illuminating lectures during the conference. In his first lecture, “J. S. Bach the Organist—Recent Research,” he presented arguments supporting Bach’s authorship of the D-minor Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565, dated 1703. Peter Williams, who questioned Bach’s authorship in the 1980s, maintained that such a piece could not have been composed by Bach before 1730. Wolff presented convincing arguments based on an analysis of both the oldest manuscripts and the music itself. He also drew a connection to the discovery in 2008 of Bach’s Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 1128, in the library of Halle University. The work is a large free fantasia dated ca. 1705, with compositional features shared by the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Wolff maintained that Bach, whose organ technique was formidable at an early age, composed the D-minor Toccata and Fugue to dazzle his audience with improvisatory passages borrowed from pieces like Buxtehude’s D-minor Toccata. Wolff concluded that this work was written as a showpiece for Bach himself and not intended to be circulated and copied by his pupils; hence only one copy exists, in the hand of Johannes Ringk, dated 1730.
Michael Barone’s handout listing Mendelssohn recordings was a testimony to his impressive knowledge of recorded organ music. Of the many Mendelssohn pieces he played, the most compelling was a 1973 recording of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, op. 25, played by Robert B. Pitman, piano, and George Lamphere, organ, at the Methuen Music Hall (Pipedreams CD-1002; live performance). The playing was stunning in its youthful exuberance and virtuosity.
Professor Wolff showed images of historical organs and churches connected to Bach, many of which unfortunately no longer exist, in his lecture “Silbermann and Others—The World of Bach Organs.” The most riveting information regarding performance practice of the organ in Bach cantatas came from a view of the original Mülhausen balcony. The balcony was large enough to accommodate strings, woodwinds, brass, and choir; kettle drums were fixed onto the railings overlooking the audience. The choir stood below the instruments. The large organ was used—not a little Positiv. A performance incorporating this practice is on John Eliot Gardner’s recording, Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, using the Altenburg organ in Cantata 146.
James Kibbie, Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan, announced that his recordings of the complete organ works of Bach, performed on historical instruments in Germany, can be found at the website <blockmrecords.org>. The project is supported by a gift from Dr. Barbara Sloat in honor of her late husband J. Barry Sloat. Additional details are available at <www.blockmrecords.org/bach&gt;.
Istvan Ruppert is Dean and Professor of Organ in the Department of Music of the Szechenyi University in Gyor, Hungary, and is also an organ professor at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. His program included music by Mendelssohn, Karg-Elert, Max Reger, Liszt, and three Hungarian composers. He has formidable technique and played with great energy and abandon. It was refreshing to hear intriguing and unknown compositions by Frigyes Hidas, Zsolt Gárdonyi, and Istvan Koloss. The humor in Gárdonyi’s Mozart Changes was appreciated. Ruppert is a real enthusiast in sharing music by Hungarian composers by graciously offering to send scores to those who wished to have them.

October 6
Prof. Wolff pointed out in his lecture “Bach’s Organ Music—From 1750 to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” that Bach’s Clavier Übung III offered a textbook of organ playing. Wolff lamented that Mendelssohn’s inclusion of historical music by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn into the Gewandhaus concerts had unfortunate consequences in our concert programs today. While only five percent of his concerts were devoted to “historical composers,” the remaining works were by contemporary composers, himself, Liszt, Schumann, and Schubert. Today our programs are mainly old music, with five percent devoted to new music.
Susanne Diederich received a PhD from Tübingen University. Her dissertation, “Original instructions of registration for French organ music in the 17th and 18th centuries: Relations between organ building and organ music during the time of Louis XIV,” represents some of the ground-breaking research on French Classical organs; it was published by Bärenreiter in 1975. In her lecture, “The Classical French Organ, Its Music and the French Influence on Bach’s Organ Composition,” Diederich pointed out that the French Classical organ was complete by 1665, and Guillaume Nivers’ First Organ Book of 1665 contained the first description of all the stops. Her handout was especially informative in showing how Bach’s table of ornaments in his Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm
Friedemann reflected his assimilation of ornament tables by Raison, 1688, Boyvin, 1689, and Couperin, 1690. Robert Luther, organist emeritus of Zion Lutheran Church in Anoka, Minnesota, played movements from Guilain’s Second Suite, and Christopher Urbiel, doctoral student of Marilyn Mason, played movements from de Grigny’s Veni Creator, Marchand’s Livre d’orgue Book I, and Bach’s Fantaisie, BWV 542, to illustrate features Bach borrowed from the French Classical repertoire.
Seth Nelson received his DMA in organ performance from the University of Michigan in 2003; he is organist at the First Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, and accompanist for the San Antonio Choral Society and the Trinity University Choir. His lecture/recital, “Music of the Calvinist Reformation: Introducing John Calvin’s Theology of Music,” included an explanation of why Calvin did not approve of the use of the organ in services. The reasons were many: the Old Testament mentioned its use, thus it is not appropriate to use an old instrument in the new age; it is wrong to imitate the Roman Church; it is an unnecessary aid; it is too distracting; it is against Paul’s teaching, “Praise should be in all one tongue.” The highlight of the program was hearing Seth Nelson’s spirited playing of Paul Manz’s introduction to Calvin’s setting of Psalm 42 and Michael Burkhardt’s introduction and interlude to Calvin’s setting of Psalm 134.
The evening concert featured Mendelssohn’s six organ sonatas played by James Hammann, chair of the music department of the University of New Orleans. It was a rare treat to hear these technically demanding pieces all played at one sitting. Dr. Hammann’s years of investment in this music is apparent. His recording of Mendelssohn’s organ works on the 1785 Stumm organ in St. Ulrich’s Church in Neckargemünd is available on the Raven label.

October 7
Tuesday morning began with the annually anticipated narrated photographic summary of European organs presented by Janice and Bela Feher. This year featured the UM Historic Organ Tour 56 to Northern Spain and France. The PowerPoint presentation included at least 600 photographs of organs in 35 religious locations and the Grenzing organ factory in Barcelona. The organs dated from 1522 to 1890 and included builders Dom Bedos, François-Henry, Louis-Alexandre, Clicquot, Cavaillé family, Cavaillé-Coll, Moucherel, and Scherrer. The photos showed views of cases, consoles, mechanical works, stained glass windows, altar pieces, sacred art, and other enhancements. The Fehers provided a written list with detailed information for each picture. Their first book, with Marilyn Mason, is available by mail order from <Blurb.com>. (Review by Lisa Byers)
Stephen Morris is a lecturer in music at Baylor University, Waco, Texas; organist-choirmaster and director of music ministries at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Houston, Texas; and maintains a studio as a teacher of singing, largely concentrating on early adolescent female voices. His presentation, “Acclaim, Slander, and Renaissance: An Historical Perspective on Mendelssohn,” incorporated visual images and music. Among the lesser-known facts is that Mendelssohn was admired and befriended by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. They chose Mendelssohn’s March from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for their daughter’s wedding. It became a favorite for productions of Shakespeare throughout Europe. However, due to anti-Semitism fueled by Richard Wagner, Mendelssohn’s March was banned by Nazi Germany, and ten other composers were commissioned to replace it. Ironically, the Nazis preferred Bach above all composers, yet they never would have known about him without Mendelssohn. Morris noted that there is a great wealth of information on Mendelssohn research at <www.
themendelssohnproject.org>.
Professor Wolff concluded his Bach-Mendelssohn lectures with a fascinating presentation, “The Pre-History of Mendelssohn’s Performances of the St. Matthew Passion.” He described Sarah Itzig Levy, Mendelssohn’s maternal great aunt and a famous harpsichordist, as the moving force who began the revival of
J.S. Bach’s music. She introduced family members and friends to many of Bach’s works. She studied with W.F. Bach and commissioned C.P.E. Bach to write what turned out to be his last concerto: one for harpsichord, fortepiano, and orchestra. She regularly performed in weekly gatherings in her salon as soloist with an orchestra from 1774–1784. In 1823 Mendelssohn was given a copy of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion by his grandmother, Bella Salomon, Sara Levy’s sister. It took Mendelssohn five years to persuade his teacher, Carl Friedrich Zelter, to have the Singakademie of Berlin perform it. The 19-year-old Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion to a packed audience that included the Prussian king. This performance enthralled the audience and thus began J. S. Bach’s reentry into the hearts of German people and to the world at large. Mendelssohn continued conducting performances of the St. Matthew Passion when he became director of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig in 1834, at the age of twenty-six. He re-orchestrated it, shortened some pieces, omitted some arias, and introduced the practice of having the chorale Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden sung a cappella. That score and the performing parts are now in the Bodleian Library.
Eugenio Fagiani, resident organist at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Bergamo, played a recital at Hill Auditorium featuring Italian composers Filippo Capocci, Oreste Ravanello, Marco Enrico Bossi, and four of his own compositions. His playing was impeccable, and his compositions reflect the influence of one of his teachers, Naji Hakim, in style and use of exotic sounds and feisty, driving rhythms. His Victimae Paschali Laudes, op. 96, has a wide variety of striking timbres, ranging from a clarinet plus mutation stops to a big-band sound. His creativity as a composer was undeniable in his Festive Prelude, op. 99b, composed for this conference. Here the pedal occasionally sounded like percussive drums. The work sizzled with energy and ended in a fiery toccata. Fagiani played “Joke,” another of his compositions, as an encore. The audience enjoyed his quotations from J. S. Bach and John Lennon. More can be learned about this impressive composer/organist at his website:
<www.eugeniomariafagiani.com&gt;.
Michele Johns, Adjunct Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan, presented an interesting lecture on the changes of taste reflected in hymnals from four denominations over the past forty years. She noted that the texts have become more gender inclusive, hymns in foreign languages are included (“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” appears in four languages in the Presbyterian Hymnal), and there is greater variety in styles from “pantyhose music”—one size fits all—to Taizé folk melodies; she proved her point that in today’s hymnals there is “Something Old, Something New.”
One of the most exciting recitals of the conference was played by Aaron Tan, a student of Marilyn Mason and a graduate student in the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan, organist/choirmaster at the First Presbyterian Church in Ypsilanti, and director of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival. His memorized recital shimmered with grace and energy: Alleluyas by Simon Preston; Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, op. 7, no. 3, by Marcel Dupré; Sicilienne from Suite, op. 5, by Maurice Duruflé; Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543, by J. S. Bach; Moto ostinato from Sunday Music by Petr Eben; Naïades and Final from Symphony No. 6 by Louis Vierne. The audience gave him a standing ovation.
The concluding recital was played in Hill Auditorium in memory of Robert Glasgow by some of his former students. The program was a beautiful tribute to his life—a life devoted to the study, performance and teaching of organ music, especially the music of Franck, Mendelssohn, Vierne, Widor, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. The performers brought with them some of his spirit, some of his light, some of his joy in creating something that puts us in another dimension. His attention to the minutest detail of the score, his total commitment to breathing life into each phrase was mirrored in these performers:
Mark Toews, director of music, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto, past president, Royal Canadian College of Organists, Variations de Concert, op. 1 by Joseph Bonnet; Ronald Krebs, vice president, Reuter Organ Company, O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, op. 122, no. 11, Fugue in A-flat Minor, WoO8, by Johannes Brahms; David Palmer, Professor Emeritus, School of Music, University of Windsor, organist and choir director, All Saints’ Church, Windsor, Ontario, L’Apparition du Christ ressuscité a Marie-Madeleine by Olivier Messiaen; Joanne Vollendorf Clark, Chair of the Music Department, Marygrove College, Detroit, minister of music, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Detroit, Pastorale, op. 26, by Alexandre Guilmant; Charles Miller, minister of music and organist, National City Christian Church, Washington, D.C., Pièce héroïque by César Franck; Joseph Jackson, organist, First Presbyterian Church, Royal Oak, Michigan, “Air with Variations” from Suite for Organ by Leo Sowerby; and Jeremy David Tarrant, organist and choirmaster, the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, Andantino, op. 51, no. 2, and Carillon de Westminster, op. 54, no. 6, by Louis Vierne.
Professor Marilyn Mason made the 49th Conference on Organ Music at the University of Michigan a reality. She invested countless hours of planning and organizing into making it happen, because she has an insatiable thirst for learning and thinks “we all need to learn.” She has brought brilliant scholars and performers together for 49 years to teach and inspire us. The list includes such figures as Almut Rössler, Umberto Pineschi, Martin Haselböck, Todd Wilson, Janette Fishell, Madame Duruflé, Catherine Crozier, Guy Bovet, Peter Williams, Lady Susi Jeans, Wilma Jensen, Gordon Atkinson, and Marie-Claire Alain (to name only a few). We thank her for such priceless gifts.

The University of Michigan

The University of Michigan School of Music presented its 40th annual Conference on Organ Music, October 15-18, 2000, an international event featuring music of Germany, France, and Russia. The conference was directed by Marilyn Mason, chairman of the Organ Department.

 Prof. James Kibbie opened the conference with the 14th of his 18 Bach recitals on the Fisk organ in the Blanche Anderson Moore Hall. The performance of the complete organ works of J.S. Bach is the centerpiece of his project mark-ing the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. Prof. Kibbie revealed himself to be a well-prepared Bach performer with a clean technique, judicious articulation, and particularly tasteful ornamentation. This program achieved his stated goal of presenting "audience-friendly" programs planned as individual units so that the listener could experience the rich variety of Bach's genius.

Dietrich Wagler is organist and church music director at the Cathedral in the old Saxonian city of Freiberg.  His program on the three-manual Wilhelm organ at the First Congregational Church, "Bach and His Circle," included music of J.S. Bach, Krebs, Schneider, W.F. Bach, Homilius, and C.P.E. Bach. An organist of international reputation, Mr. Wagler performed all of the music with ease and clearly enjoyed playing the Wilhelm. Noteworthy were his delightful performance of two Krebs chorales, effective registration for the C.P.E. Bach Fantasy and Fugue in C minor, and an especially spirited performance of the J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat.

October 16

Rose Van Mersbergen, graduate student in organ performance and theory at Michigan, presented a lecture/performance entitled, "J.S. Bach's Weimar Years (1708-1717):  Encountering and Synthesizing the Italian Concerto," on the Marilyn Mason Organ  at the School of Music. Her ideas were well presented and illustrated by her performance of the music. She demonstrated the characteristics of the concerto: structural insights; responding to the three-movement structure; the ritornello; and characteristic motifs. Van Mersbergen also presented "The Orgelbüchlein: A Working Demonstration of Synthesis."

 Michigan Prof. Ellwood Derr lectured on the topic, "Observations on Method in Bach's Compositions." The basis of the lecture dealt with the process of securing themes and proceeding to develop them. He pointed out, with effective examples, the absolute indispensability of chorales in whatever genre the composer happened to be working.  Chorales are the basis for the Praeambula and Fantasias which Bach wrote for Wilhelm Friedmann Bach; these later received the titles "Inventions and Sinfonias."

In  his lecture, "The Spiritual Bach," Dennis Schmidt emphasized Bach's piety as the source of his music. Schmidt demonstrated the spirituality of Bach by setting his work in the context of the Reformation and stressing death as the fulfillment of life from Bach's treatment of the chorale texts. He cited the marginal notes from Bach's Biblical commentary and supplied readings and examples from artists contemporary with Bach, notably a painting of the crucifixion by Cranach. In a second session, Dr. Schmidt described the completed restorations of the organs at the Bachkirche, Arnstadt, and St. Thomas Church, Leipzig. He presented the history of these organs and the philosophy guiding the restorations as planned by the present organists of the churches where Bach was organist and kantor.

At the Frieze Memorial Organ, the following organ majors performed varied repertoire:  Paula Lee and Steph-anie Muller (pupils of Robert Glasgow); Christopher Lees and Michael Elsbernd (pupils of James Kibbie); and Sean Jackman and Jean Randall (pupils of Marilyn Mason).

Wolfgang Baumgratz, cathedral organist at Bremen Dom and Professor, Hochschule für Kunst, Bremen, Germany, played an all-Bach concert on the Frieze Memorial Organ. The large works of  BWV 547 and 542 were sandwiched between the Glorias of the Leipzig Chorales. The Reger transcription of Bach's Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge, BWV 903, was an Ann Arbor premiere.

October 17

Michael Elbernd gave a lecture-recital,  "Organ Works of Johann Adam Reincken," on the Wilhelm organ at the First Congregational Church. Russian pianists Sofia Lissitchenko and Alexei  Melentiev, students at the Moscow Conservatory, played a concert of varied  music. They demonstrated superb technique and compelling virtuosity. The enthusiastic audience called them back for two encores.

Michele Johns conducted a colorful program of music for handbells, organ, and choir. The compositions had been chosen as challenging material for each ensemble. Performers included Jean Randall, Sara Hazen, Kay Ray, Eileen Page, Pat McOmber, and Ed Maki-Schramm, organist. The music had been donated by Beckenhorst  Press, Columbus, Ohio. The RACC Trio brilliantly played music of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Christie Abe, violin; Katri Ervamaa, ‘cello; and pianist Rakhee Sung displayed solid training in chamber music.

The lecture, "Matters of Registration in the Bach Organ," by Baumgratz, brought a  North German perspective on Bach's registration. It is hoped that his lecture will be published in article form. Jean Randall performed Couperin's Messe pour les Couvents with an historically informed sense of style, and was assisted by Matthew Moore, who sang the alternatim chant in sympathetic style. The  evening recital, "Music of France," by Jean-Pierre Lecaudey,   included works of Widor, Franck, Duruflé, Bonnal, and Messiaen. He pulled out the stops of the Frieze Memorial Organ resulting in a performance of great panache.

October 18

Carole Halmekangas provided an illustrated viewpoint of "Worship Renewal," particularly through the hymn singing as performed at Ward Church, Livonia, Michigan, where she serves as director of music. Mark Rich offered an excellent side-by-side comparison of Te Deums by LeBègue, Buxtehude, and Bach and included thoroughly satisfying performances of the three works. The cantor, Chris  Meerdink, sang alternatim with a fine sense of style.

The recital by Gregory Hamilton, "Music of Johann Gottfried Walther"  on the Marilyn Mason Organ, showed many varied compositions of the composer, and was an excellent combination of performer, music and organ. At Hill Auditorium, Jeremy Tarrant, recently appointed organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Detroit, discussed Widor's Symphonie Gothique and gave a compelling reading of this great work. Two carillonists played recitals: Judith Ogden on October 16, "Music by Bach"; and on October 17, University carillonist, Margo Halsted, "A Program of French Music."

In sum, there were twenty-one guest presenters. Two organists, Prof. Baumgratz and M. Lecaudey, and the two Russian pianists appeared in Ann Arbor for the first time. The conference closed with a gala reception on the stage of Hill Auditorium for all performers and guests.

Contributors to this article include Alan Knight, Marilyn Mason, and Herman Taylor.

Andrew Willis performs on pianos of all periods. He has recorded vocal and chamber music with many artists and solo works ranging from Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” sonata to Martin Amlin’s Sonata No. 7 (1999). A past president of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, Willis holds degrees from Curtis, Temple, and Cornell universities and is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he directs the biennial “Focus on Piano Literature.”

The Westfield Center presented its annual conference April 4–6, in Tacoma, Washington, in collaboration with Pacific Lutheran University. Arriving in the Puget Sound area a day before the conference to explore a bit and visit friends, I was treated to the sight of Mt. Rainier aglow in the evening over the streets of downtown Tacoma. 

Thursday evening concert

On Thursday evening, the opening concert took place in Pacific Lutheran University’s Lagerquist Concert Hall, anchored by the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Organ, built by Paul Fritts in 1998 in the tradition of Northern European instruments of the 18th century. Later in the conference, Paul Tegels would demonstrate this instrument, but on this evening the focus remained on the hall itself, a high-ceilinged, shoebox-style space with a transparent, warm acoustic—ideal for the performance of early music. Violinist Ingrid Mathews and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman presented 17th-century sonatas by Dario Castello, Isabella Leonarda, and Heinrich Schmelzer, as well as a solo performance by Schenkman of Georg Muffat’s Passacaglia. This 24-section piece, whose opening period recurs en rondeau at four pivotal moments, came to life in Schenkman’s hands. Mathews delivered an authoritative performance, presenting all three sonatas from memory with a spontaneity that bore the stamp of naturalness and identification with the improvisatory prowess of the Seicento.

The second half of the concert featured Carissimi’s Historia di Jephte, presented by the PLU Choir of the West with a chamber orchestra conducted by Richard Nance. The student ensemble achieved a wholly professional standard under its conductor. The soloists displayed a remarkable acumen for tragic characterization. In keeping with the theme of the conference, the performance was secured and animated by inventive playing from the continuo group, consisting of Nathan Whittaker, cello, Mercedes Paynter, bass, James Brown, baroque guitar, Kathryn Habedank, harpsichord, and Paul Tegels, positiv organ. If the impact of Haydn’s Little Organ Mass that closed the evening was somewhat diluted after the intense expressivity of Carissimi, it was nonetheless charming to traverse the text of the Mass in under twenty minutes. Tegels capitalized upon the opportunity to shine in the organ obbligato of the Benedictus. 

Friday

The morning began with “The Nuts and Bolts of Basso Continuo,” by Edward Parmentier. Parmentier’s lecture covered such core precepts as bringing the bass to life with the left hand, treating the bass as an independent melody, recognizing the bass as the king melody in the piece, and, rather exhilaratingly, unlistening to the ensemble so as to create the maximum dialogue between the bass and other parts. Could there be any doubt on which part the attention should be focused? In a generous annotated handout, Parmentier presented the score of a Veni Domine by Viadana and a Largo from a Handel flute sonata, showing multiple stages of preparation, each illustrating one step in his systematic approach to realizing a basso continuo part. Among the recommended steps: identifying motivic associations with the verbal text if one exists; creating phrasings, articulations, and emphases for the bass part; identifying harmonic roots and harmonic rhythm; adding numeric figures; and identifying and classifying cadences. Parmentier’s confidence in the process and the clarity of his explication left many eager to try their hands at his method, and in possession of clear instructions for doing so. 

Throughout the conference, lectures alternated with sessions of applied music, and thus a Parmentier masterclass ensued after a short break. Four harpsichord students, assisted by various soloists, presented a gavotte from a
LeRoux trio sonata, a movement from a Telemann violin sonata, a Handel aria, and a movement from a Handel violin sonata. With each, Parmentier zeroed in on one primary objective, underlining the chosen concept with energy and a wealth of colorful imagery. As soon as each student demonstrated a grasp of the essential point, he or she was congratulated and the class progressed to the next work. This brisk approach to teaching ensured that each student took away something practical and memorable. Questions from the audience were welcomed and addressed in a spirit of shared inquiry.

After lunch, Gregory Crowell took the helm for an illuminating talk on “Continuo for Organ.” Armed with slides and recorded excerpts, Crowell addressed numerous concerns specific to organ continuo playing, arguing for a bolder, more substantial sonority than is often heard. Adducing evidence drawn from the disposition of various German organs and illustrated by recordings of both problematic and successful organ continuo sonorities, Crowell offered practical advice relating to chordal voicing, the use of embellishment, matching releases to the ensemble sound, and the substitution of sonority for cleverness. No fewer than three modern flutists with their keyboard partners had been assigned to his masterclass, and he gently encouraged each toward realizations that addressed inflection, phrasing, and the awareness of harmonic and rhythmic structure, pointing out that a realization should be neither interesting all the time nor boring all the time. Crowell’s reward came in the form of a refined and assured reading of a Biber violin sonata by two experienced professionals, allowing him to offer suggestions at a more sophisticated level. A paper on “Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Italian Continuo Improvisation and its Application to Buxtehude’s Trio Sonatas Op. 1 and 2” was read by Jeong-Suk Bae to round out the afternoon’s activity.

The evening featured a brilliant chamber concert anchored by the indefatigable Parmentier. Joined in turn by four soloists on each half of the generous program, the harpsichordist became the avatar of the conference’s subtitle: “the art of creative collaboration.” Flutist Jennifer Rhyne, violinist Svend Rønning, cellist Nathan Whittaker, and tenor James Brown assisted him in presenting a wide spectrum of Baroque styles, from Viadana, Caccini, Frescobaldi, and Purcell (Brown), through François Couperin and Hotteterre (Rhyne), and Veracini and Handel (Rønning), to Vivaldi and again Frescobaldi (Whittaker). As a finale, all joined forces in the aria, “So schnell ein rauschend Wasser schiesst,” from J. S. Bach’s Cantata 26. 

Responsive to each composer’s individuality and supportive of each soloist’s musicianship, Parmentier animated movement after movement with energy and imagination, proving the efficacy of the practice outlined in his morning lecture. His independent, strong, clear bass lines—he might call them “argumentative”—generated and justified freely shaped right-hand parts of great textural, rhythmic, and decorative variety. It was a tour de force by a master who did not disdain to shuttle chairs and stands about the stage between pieces.  

Saturday

Day three opened with a presentation by Charlotte Mattax Moersch on “The Style of Basso Continuo Accompaniment in France according to Denis Delair.” From Delair’s 1690 treatise, described as “sympathetic to the performer and the beginner,” and thus a good resource for pedagogy, Mattax Moersch extracted much guidance for realization in the French style. A useful distinction was drawn between science and art, corresponding to rules and style. Rules are fairly universal, reflecting the laws of tonal composition, but styles differ according to time and place. The elements of style that Delair discusses relate to such refinements as ornaments, arpeggiation, alteration of the bass, and added dissonance, leading to a chord treatment not unlike the unmeasured prelude tradition. Mattax Moersch’s playing of examples drawn from the treatise eloquently illustrated Delair’s taste in considerable detail, demonstrating the abundance of practical guidance that may be drawn from this source. 

Although none of the works presented in the masterclass that followed was French, Mattax Moersch’s comprehensive grasp of the repertoire generated sage guidance toward the realization of Caccini’s “Amarilli mia bella,” of an Allegro assai from a Telemann flute sonata, of Purcell’s “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” and of the Andante from J. S. Bach’s Flute Sonata in E Minor. Her suggestions immediately proved effective, as in the Purcell, where a highly expressive realization was developed by employing an unobtrusive 1 x 8′ registration, varying the direction and degree of arpeggiation, releasing long basses during recitative, and closely following the singer’s punctuation. When the need for improvised melody arose in the introduction of the Bach sonata movement, a wealth of options involving scale figures, arpeggiation, ornaments, and leaps was proferred. It was clear that the art of creative collaboration would continue to thrive in the hands of many a talented young artist. 

After lunch, lutenist and leader of Pacific MusicWorks Stephen Stubbs discussed “The Conceptual Shift between 17th and 18th Century Keyboard Continuo.” Tracing the historical context for the development of continuo, Stubbs claimed the chittarone as “the humanistic instrument” during the “humanistic revolution” of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Though the instruments are physically unrelated, the chittarone’s name evokes the image of the ancient Greek kithara and reflects its role in support of the fusion of poetry and music during the rise of opera. Its ascendence fostered chordal consciousness, “breaking the stranglehold of polyphony,” and its technique gradually evolved from artistic strumming to include the plucking of individual notes. Of particular interest was the distinction drawn between the 17th-century conception of harmony in confrontation with the melodic parts and the 18th-century conception of harmony as accommodating to them. The succinct 1607 continuo tutor of Agazzari was recommended to those seeking guidance contemporary to this period.  

At midafternoon, a splendid harpsichord recital by Ignacio Prego revealed the harpsichord in a different light from that of continuo instrument (though I dare say many were by now extra attentive to the bass lines!). Much was expected of Prego, winner of the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition, and he did not disappoint, traversing works by Cabezón, Cabanilles, Frescobaldi, Froberger, and J. S. Bach with intelligence, command, and warmth. Bravo Prego, and bravo Westfield for supporting the future of early keyboard performance in an eminently tangible way.  

A gathering for final questions brought together all four presenters with the attendees to clarify, reinforce, and further contemplate many points developed during the conference, and conviviality reigned as all decamped to a local restaurant for dinner. Local hosts Paul Tegels and Kathryn Habedank cannot be praised enough for their unflagging attention to the visiting conferees.

Those who have heard Stephen Stubbs may predict that one of the highlights of the conference still lay in store, and indeed, his unobtrusive yet spirited leadership from the continuo section molded a magnificent all-Handel concert by Pacific MusicWorks, a professional ensemble blending virtuosity, beauty of tone, perfect ensemble, and refined historical awareness. Anchoring the program were two early vocal works, Apollo e Dafne (1709) and a Gloria (1707). Though oddly described in the program as “A Sacred Oratorio,” Apollo e Dafne is in fact a secular cantata that deploys the mythical figures as archetypes in a grand battle of the sexes. Singers Amanda Forsythe and Douglas Williams both possess beautifully resonant instruments and both delivered Handel’s vividly styled lines with accuracy, agility, and dignity. Even more electrifying, if it were possible, was Forsythe’s coloratura in the Gloria that brought the concert to a brilliant close. This was a level of historical performance that will long reverberate in the memory.

To my regret, I was unable to attend the organ recital played by Greg Crowell on Sunday afternoon.

Through this conference, “Continuo: The Art of Creative Collaboration,” the Westfield Center has once again invigorated America’s historical keyboard culture in a way that is certain to pay dividends through the better-informed and more creative playing and listening of all who participated. May the future continue to smile upon this mission.

Joel H. Kuznik, MMus, STM, studied with David Craighead at the Eastman School of Music and on sabbatical with Jean Langlais, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, and Anton Heiller. He served as college organist at Concordia Sr. College, Ft. Wayne, until its close. In New York City he had an executive career in marketing and sales on Fifth Avenue and Wall Street. Now retired, he is active as a music critic and serves on the board of the Bach Foundation at Holy Trinity in its 37th year of presenting Bach Cantatas. He is also involved in Eastman's historic instrument project and in May traveled with the faculty to Göteborg and Vilnius for the International Casparini Conference. His website was inspired by the Leipzig Bach Festival.

Last year's Festival, "Bach in Leipzig --Between Tradition and a New Beginning," was a high water mark and featured such interpreters as Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt, and Philippe Herreweghe and the use of historic instruments. The Bach Medal was awarded to Leonhardt.

This year's theme was "Bach and the Age of Romanticism" and featured modern instruments. The Bach Medal went to Helmuth Rilling, firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition and founder of the Gächinger Kantorei in 1954 and of the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart in 1965. Quite a shift! So it was significant that Rilling and his forces gave the pivotal performance midway through the festival.

Those who are fans of Rilling's approach with a modern orchestra and a big sound would have been impressed with virtuoso instrumental performances and the full, rich vocal sound. Those who prefer the historic approach would have been tested by thick textures that favored robustness over clarity and by soloists whose quality, except for the bass, seemed tremulous and raspy. Rilling conducted two Bach cantatas (BWV 105 and 147) and Mendelssohn's Kyrie in D Minor and cantata Wie der Hirsch schreit nach frischem Wasser (As the hart cries for fresh water, op. 42).

There were other choral programs of note. The St. Thomas Choir under the expert direction of Cantor Georg Christoph Biller appeared in two outstanding programs. The opening concert with the theme Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (Sing to the Lord a new song) featured both Bach's motet and Cantata BWV 190 and also Mendelssohn's Opus 91. In a later concert Biller conducted Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in B Major, "Lobgesang," a tour de force presented with the St. Thomas Choir, the female Schola Cantorum Leipzig and the able Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

In the newly restored St. Nicholas Church an impassioned Daniel Reuss conducted a riveting performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio, St. Paul, with the exceptional RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. There were also opportunities to hear Haydn's Creation at the Hochschule für Musik and Mendelssohn's 1851 version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Gewandhaus with its excellent acoustics and orchestra-in-the-round seating.

The closing concert is traditionally a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Last year Herreweghe with his Collegium Vocale Gent delivered a seminal performance of unforgettable artistic beauty, heard once in a lifetime. This year the honors went to the legendary Eric Ericson in his 85th year and his Chamber Choir with the Drottningholm Barock-Ensemble. In addition to technical brilliance Ericson evoked a palpable spiritual depth that was inspired and poetic. Most moving was Marie Sanner's poignant, affecting Agnus Dei, sung last year so memorably by Andreas Scholl. Next year Herbert Blomstedt will conduct the Mass with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chamber Choir.

 The organ and organists fared very well this year. Organ excursions included the ever-popular Silbermann organs of Rötha and also the three-manual Silbermann at the Dresden Hofkirche restored in 2002. In Leipzig you could hear the New Bach Organ by Woehl and two romantic Sauer organs: at St. Michael's Church celebrating its 100th year (three manuals, 46 ranks) and at St. Thomas dating from 1885 (three manuals, over 100 ranks).

At St. Michael's a talented Daniel Beilschmidt played an Organ Matins with Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt's Funerailles transcribed by Lionel Rogg, and an impressive Duruflé-esque improvisation. In several services at St. Thomas one heard the full range of the grand Sauer in the hands of the very gifted assistant organist, Johannes Unger, in Schumann's Fugue No. 6 on BACH and Saint-Saëns' Fugue in E-flat Major, both skillfully rendered. St. Thomas organist Ulrich Böhme and his wife, Martina, used both the Sauer and New Bach Organ in works for four hands including movements from Bach's Art of the Fugue, Beethoven's F Major Adagio for Flute Clock, and Merkel's demanding Sonata in D Minor, op. 30, for four hands and four feet concluding with the fugue in a mesmerizing triumph!

Johannes Unger and the Sauer can be heard in a recent release from Priory Records Great European Organ Series, No. 62 (PRCD 788), available in this country through Albany Music Distributors, Inc. (518/436-8814) and the Organ Historical Society (www.ohscatalog.org). The Wilhelm Sauer is one of Germany's most important late Romantic organs, built in 1809 with 63 stops, but later expanded under Karl Straube's tenure to 88 stops. Ulrich Böhme can be heard on the New Bach Organ on Querstand VKJK 0120 available through OHS in an all-Bach program of Johann Sebastian, his uncle Johann Christoph, and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. The St. Thomas Choir can be seen and heard in a DVD recording of the Mass in B Minor, broadcast and taped on the 250th anniversary of Bach's death in 2000, available from Gothic and OHS.

Each day began with worship in Leipzig churches. Probably the service of greatest interest is the annual St. Thomas Ascension Day Service "in der Liturgie der Bach-Zeit" (in the liturgy of Bach's time). The service was identical to last year's except for Cantata BWV 128, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, and the Sanctus in D Major, BWV 238. A copy of the service with an English translation can be found at

<www.bachsite.info&gt;.

Websites for both St. Thomas and the Bach Archive, which sponsors the Festival, are also now in English. At <www.thomaskirche.org&gt; one can access the music performed in services and concerts and also the Thomasshop, where you can buy CDs, books, and souvenirs. Highly recommended are two books on St. Thomas, both full of interesting information and beautiful photography. The smaller English paperback "Church Guide," written by Pastor Christian Wolff, "Thomas Church in Leipzig," is only Euro 6.80. The more extensive German volume of 200 pages for Euro 28.00, written by Martin Petzoldt, "St. Thomas/zu Leipzig," provides a comprehensive history of the church and information on the music program (organs and organists, cantors, choir and its school). Both are wonderful mementos.

At <www.bach-leipzig.de&gt; there is information on this year's festival (with PDF files of the daily Bach News) and also next year's. The dates for 2005 are April 29-May 8 because of an earlier Easter and because the festival is scheduled around Ascension Day, which is also a German national holiday. Next year's theme is "Bach and the Future" with new commissions, Les Talens Lyriques, The Hilliard Ensemble, John Eliot Gardner with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, Herbert Blomstedt with the Gewandhaus forces, and, of course, the St. Thomas Choir under Cantor Biller. The full program will appear online in October. Tickets go on sale November 15.

Going to Leipzig has immeasurable rewards--intimate contact with the spirit of Bach and 70 exceptional performances by an international gathering of world talent. Any church musician who loves Bach should make this pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime.