reviewvancouver: Early Music Vancouver - Lumen Festival 2025 - Bach Ties the Knot

In a marriage possibly made in heaven, the golden voice of Dorothée Mields and the consummate Pacific Baroque Orchestra united in performing some of Bach’s most beautiful explorations of love, both earthly and spiritual. His wedding cantatas bring joy to happy couples to this day, full as they are of emotional depth, charm and brilliance. Service to God and a close reading of Biblical texts, central to Bach both personally and professionally, underlie all his work.

Perhaps with this in mind, Saturday’s program was made up of a secular wedding concerto probably written for a real marriage celebration and one with a more spiritual focus.

Only two of Bach’s wedding cantata’s exist in full of which "Wiechet nur, betrubte Schatten", BWV 202 made up the second half of the program. To open, Mields took a leaf out of Bach’s book and made a ‘Parodie’ cantata, a compilation of existing pieces, choosing arias and recitatives from several larger works built around the Parable of the Wedding Feast, symbolising the union of God the Bridegroom with humble humanity. In this way she presents some less commonly performed pieces and draws together pieces on the same theme from different periods of Bach’s life: the "Parable of the Wedding Feast", the "Song of Songs" and humankind’s relationship to God. .

This is a thoroughly convincing configuration, even allowing for the insertion of one piece not by Johann Sebastian Bach but by an older cousin, Johann Christoff, balanced, graceful and beautifully performed. So well did each selection follow another, each one astonishing or ravishing, it is hard to extract any individual part for comment. That said, Curtis Foster, oboe, was foundational, steady and restrained, yet inevitable and full of forward movement and an excellent partner for Mield’s voice. Diederik van Dijk’s mastery of his instrument and sympathy with the soloist led to intense dialogue between the two, intimate and lively. Chloe Myers never let the virtuoso writing in "Mein Freund is mein" subdue the deep emotion of the text, so passionately explored by Mields. Mields, herself, is a stellar artist, warm, compassionate and sensitive in her approach to the text and in music, brilliant, articulate and thoroughly immersed in Bach's world.

The second cantata was preceded by Bach’s "Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C major", BWV 1061 in a new arrangement for his orchestra by Alexander Weimann. The orchestra played with a full maturity, belying the younger faces in the group, whom it was a pleasure to see and hear. It is always also a pleasure to listen to transcriptions and arrangements which discover new ways of hearing a piece, especially when as well done as this. The texture was always light, no matter how dense the writing and the smooth richness of the organ complemented the orchestra well, even if the bite of the harpsichord was missing. The final Fuga was an especial joy.

The closing cantata "Weichet nur" is one welcoming spring and the delights of nature. The caresses of the sun, the glory of a flowering meadow, the kiss of the breeze, are wrapped in classical allusions to Phoebus, Flora and Cupid and depicted sensually in the music. The quick heartbeat of Phoebus’s horses’ hooves, languid, stroking arpeggios, and the kisses of true hearts were captured and transformed into an enclosed musical world. At the end, the allusions are dropped in favour of more direct wishes for long-lasting love and contentment with the final aria going out dancing a gavotte.

This was an exceptional experience, made deeply satisfying by its combination of technical skill and high artistry. My only quibble is the lighting design in St. Andrew’s Wesley which did nothing to enhance the performance.