August 11, 2015
The Whidbey Island Music Festival is delighted to announce its tenth summer season of chamber music concerts. This season will present a wide-ranging series of six performances of four different programs, all on period instruments.
The Whidbey Island Music Festival is a beloved annual event that presents great performances of baroque and classical chamber music in relaxed and intimate venues on beautiful Whidbey Island, with repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Beethoven and beyond. We bring music of the past four centuries to life with vivid and moving concert performances on period instruments.
• Friday, Aug. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s in-the-woods, 5217 Honeymoon Bay Road, Freeland
• Saturday, Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s in-the-woods
• Sunday, Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. at Greenbank Farm, 765 Wonn Road, A 201, Greenbank
Program III – Bach Cantatas
Aug. 14, 7:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s in-the-woods
Aug. 16, 2 p.m. at Greenbank Farm
Ach, daß ich Wassers g’nug hätte
— Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)
Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182
— Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
— Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Christoph Bach, J.S. Bach’s uncle, was the organist at St. Georg’s in Eisenach where young Johann grew up. He was revered among the Bach family as a “profound composer.” J.S. Bach contributed the following to his uncle’s obituary: … he “was as good at inventing beautiful thoughts as he was at expressing words. He composed, to the extent that current taste permitted, in a galant and cantabile style, uncommonly full-textured… On the organ and the keyboard [he] never played with fewer than five independent parts.” This wrenchingly expressive solo cantata for alto is among J.C Bach’s few surviving works.
Bach’s Cantata 106 begins with an opening Sinfonia scored for recorders, gambas and continuo, and is one of the most mournfully poignant works in all of the cantatas. Cantata 182 is a joyful celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
Program IV – Concerto, concerto!
Aug. 15, 7:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s in-the-woods
Trio Sonata b minor, 42:h6
—Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Viola Concerto in G major, TWV 51:G9
—G.P. Telemann
Recorder Concerto in F
—Giuseppe Sammartini (1695-1750)
Cello Concerto in A Minor RV 422
—Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Fourth Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1049
—Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
This program features concertos for instruments from large (cello) to small (recorder) as we delve into the musical imaginations of Vivaldi, Sammartini, Telemann and of course J.S. Bach!
Week II Artists
Catherine Webster, soprano, Reggie Mobley, alto, Zachary Finkelstein, tenor, Charles Robert Stephens, baritone
Tekla Cunningham and Adam Lamotte, baroque violin, Romaric Pokorny, baroque viola
Vicki Boeckman and Miyo Aoki, recorders
Beiliang Zhu, viola da gamba and baroque cello, Nathalie Mackie, viola da gamba
Todd Larsen, bass
Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord
