Arts & Events

American Bach Soloists Perform Bach’s Orchestral Suites

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday May 18, 2018 - 04:45:00 PM

Scholars believe Johann Sebastian Bach must have written many more orchestral works than the four Orchestral Suites that are extant. Scholars are divided over when and where Bach was working at the time he composed the four Orchestral Suites known to us. Some say he must have composed them while at Cöthen (1717-1723), while others, including ABS’s founder and music director Jeffrey Thomas, believe Bach composed them between 1729 and 1740 in Leipzig, where they were likely performed at the Café Zimmerman. In any case, all four of Bach’s extant Orchestral Suites were programmed by Jeffrey Thomas for this May 10-14 weekend’s concerts throughout the Bay Area. I caught Saturday’s performance at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church. 

Although they are scored differently – Suites I and II for small-scale ensembles, Suites III and IV for larger ensembles – they are not all that different from one another. When all four Orchestral Suites are performed in one concert, as here, they tend to blur together. Only the presence or absence of trumpets stands out as a primary marker; although it is true that Suite No. 2, which features a solo flute throughout the work, here gloriously played by Sandra Miller, stands alone as the only one of Bach’s Orchestral Suite featuring a solo instrument. Perhaps as a move to avoid the blurring tendency and instead highlight the differences among these works, Jeffrey Thomas programmed them in this order: First, Suite No. 4 in D Major; Second, Suite No. 2 in B minor; Third, Suite No. 1 in C Major; and Fourth, Suite No. 3 in D Major. Given this ordering, we had trumpets in the opening and closing works; and we had the featured solo flute in the second work, which was Suite No. 2. Placing Suite No. 3 as the concluding work also had the advantage of sending us off in style with the work that includes Bach’s famous “Air on a G string,” a favorite of audiences the world over.  

Playing on period instruments, the American Bach Soloists delivered crisp readings of each Orchestral Suite. Corey Jamason provided continuo on harpsichord; John Thiessen excelled on trumpet; Dominic Teresi played bassoon in Suites I and IV; and oboists Debra Nagy, Stephen Bard, and David Dickey played grandly in Suites I, III and IV. First Violin was performed by Jude Ziliak. As usual, Jeffrey Thomas’s conducting featured brisk tempos and clean instrumental articulation. In an evening of works that sometimes seem all too similar to one another, Jeffrey Thomas and American Bach Soloists successfully brought out the differences that distinguish these Orchestral Suites from one another.