‘It’s eternal’

109th Bethlehem Bach Festival

returns with expanded programming

The Bethlehem Bach Festival isn’t resting on its laurels.

Festival laurels’ roots run deep: 109 years and growing.

New and expanded programming highlights the 109th Bach Festival, which begins May 13 and 14 and is also presented May 20, 21 and 22, principally on the campus of Lehigh University, Bethlehem.

Centerpiece of the Festival is the “B Minor Mass,” given its United States premiere by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem in 1900. The Mass is performed at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. May 14 and 21 in Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University, by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, world-renowned vocal soloists, and the Bach Festival Orchestra, conducted by Greg Funfgeld, Bach Choir artistic director and conductor.

(See the Bach Festival schedule on Page B3.)

Soloists for the Mass and other concerts include Festival favorites Rosa Lamoreaux and Agnes Zsigovics, sopranos; Daniel Taylor, countertenor; Benjamin Butterfield, tenor; William Sharp, baritone, and Daniel Lichti, bass.

Says Funfgeld, in his 33rd season as Bach Choir artistic director, on preparing the Mass at First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, where the 100-member volunteer Bach Choir rehearses Monday nights nearly year-round, “You just come away from it awestruck. You think, “How could one man create this?’ I think God put certain people on earth to reveal Himself in ways that we couldn’t comprehend otherwise.

“Bach was the summation of everything that happened before him and the inspiration for everything that came after him.”

Bach’s Mass had its United States premiere in 1900 at the first Bethlehem Bach Festival.

“The B Minor Mass is the Everest of choral music,” says Funfgeld. “Like Everest, it’s never the same. The Mass is just something that one encounters anew every time. Your life has taken you on a journey, so you’re a different person. And every time it’s a little different.

“For a lot of people, it’s [the B Minor Mass] an anchor in their lives. It sustains them. It’s something that carries us forward and gives us hope and keeps our energies going.

“It’s not a fad,” Funfgeld says about the music of Bach. “It’s not a transitory thing. It’s an eternal thing.”

Speaking of eternity, Bach’s “Easter Oratorio” will be performed in the “Songs of Joy” concert at 8 p.m. May 13 and 20 in Packer Church. It’s one of three oratorios Bach wrote for the major “feasts,” or holiday observances, i.e., “High Holy Days,” on the church year calendar of the Christian faith. The other two are the “Ascension Oratorio” and the “Christmas Oratorio” (given its U.S. premiere in 1901 in Bethlehem).

“His [Bach’s] incredible genius was so inspired by these great feasts of the church,” Funfgeld observes. “You have these incredible pieces that are so rich: the festive choruses with trumpet and tympani and then the arias for the solos with varied and diverse instruments, some that are virtuostic and briliant and others that are reflective and comtemplative.”

World-renowned trumpet soloist Terry Everson will be heard in the “Easter Oratorio” and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, May 13 and 20 in Packer. “Terry [Everson] is a virtuoso. We plan to bring somebody like that every year to the festival,” Funfgeld says.

“They all tell these dramatic stories of episodes in the life of Christ,” Funfgeld says of the Bach oratorios. “They call Bach the fifth evangelist [after Christian Bible New Testament evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John] because he was so good at telling the story of Jesus and giving it the deepest and most profound interpretation.”

Of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Funfgeld says, “It is one of the great pieces. That’s one of the pieces, including three other pieces by Bach, that was included in the ‘Sounds from Earth’ that NASA put on the gold-plated records on the space ship Voyager. Anyone who hears that music ... It starts your toes tapping and stands the hair up on the back of your neck.”

Returning to the Festival is the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company, in “Brimming Over,” choreographed to the music of Bach and Handel, at 10:30 a.m. May 14 and 21 in Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh.

“We’ve had some wonderful collaborations with them,” Funfgeld says of Paul Taylor 2. “The orchestra likes to play for dancers. There’s a synergy there. It’s a fully professional New York dance ensemble with costumes and lights. It’s really breathtaking.”

Also returning is Dr. Christoph Wolff, author of “Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician,” for the Festival’s Distinguished Scholar Lecture, “Never-Ending News about Bach’s Life and Works,” 2 p.m. April 13 and 20, Room 145, Zoellner.

“Christoph [Wolff] is in the minds of most people the leading Bach scholar in the world,” Funfgeld says. “He was the director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig [Germany]. And he has written the most important books and studies on Bach. His knowledge is vast. It’s an honor to welcome him back to Bethlehem.”

Additional programming, begun at the 2015 Fesival, includes the “How Brightly Shines” concerts, 4 p.m. May 13 and 20 at Incarnation Church our Lord Church, Thomas and Buchanan streets, Bethlehem, for a program of Bach (including the Festival premiere of Cantata 96 “Herr Christ, der eige Gottessohn” (“Lord Christ, only son of God”), and works by Handel and Vivaldi performed by Bach Choir and Festival Orchestra members and guest soloists, conducted by Funfgeld.

Before the concert, the audience can sing Bach Chorales with members of the Bach Choir. Singers of all levels are welcome. Sheet music is provided. “That was something that was very well-received last year. A couple hundred people showed up, which I thought was fabulous,” Funfgeld says. There’s also a Bach Chorale Sing at 2 p.m. May 14 and 21 outside at Packer.

At 4 p.m. May 13 and 20 is the “Chamber Music in the Saal” program, “Treacherous Love,” in the Moravian Museum, Bethlehem, with performances of works by Handel, Corelli, two Bach secular cantatas sung in Italian and Bach’s “Italian Concerto.”

There are pre-concert performances by The Festival Brass Choir, the Young People’s Philharmonic brass ensemble, the Lehigh Valley Suzuki violin program, and the Bel Canto Children’s Chorus.

Returning this year is “Zimmermann’s Coffee House,” 8:30 p.m. May 14 and 21 in Peter Hall, Moravian College, Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus, Main and Church streets, Bethlehem. The Baroque chamber music performance is presented café style, modeled after the Zimmermann’s Coffee House of Bach’s era in Leipzig. There will be German fare, wine and beer.

Young musicians chosen by audition will perform. Plus, there will be some surprises. Enthuses Funfgeld, “There are some really brilliant musicians. There are just so many gifted young musicians in the Lehigh Valley. I think people will be stunned with the level of talent in that pool of people.”

The Young American Singer Competition Finals, sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, concludes the Festival at 1 p.m. May 22 in Peter Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

“We’ve made an incredible commitment to reaching out to young people,” says Funfgeld, mentioning the liaison with the Bel Canto Children’s Choir of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

“These are all the ways that we’re trying to ensure the future of the Bach Choir, of great choral singers, of young musicians growing up with a great relationship with classical music. We’ve beem recognized by the National Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts,” Funfgeld says.

The Festival hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. National and international reviews brought high praise for “the re-imagined” Bach Festival of 2015.

Opined Barrymore Laurence Scherer of The Wall Street Journal of the Bach Choir: “Their choral sonority is so rich you can feel it in your bones.”

Stated Michael Miller of New York Arts: “The Bach Choir of Bethlehem must surely be one of the most extraordinary musical institutions in the world.”

Wrote David Perlman of The Whole Note, Toronto: “A glorious friendship between a great composer and the orchestra, conductor and choir at the heart of an extraordinary town.”

Says Funfgeld, “I think there’s a spirit of community at the Bach Festival unlike any other. People have been coming for decades. The first Bach performance goes back to 1823 in Bethlehem.

“It’s an experrience of community, of people coming together and experiencing something they really cherish. We want to make this as rich an experience of that communithy that we can.

“I think this is just an amazing relationship that the city [Bethlehem] has had with this composer [Bach]. And people come from all over the world.

“This is our 109th festival. We just need to sit and poder that. It’s really quite a remarkable accomplishment,” says Funfgeld.

Tickets: bach.org, 610-866-4382, ext. 110 or 115