{TABLE} Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ........... Bach Mass in A, BWV234 .................. Bach {/TABLE} IN yesterday afternoon's concert at St Ann's, Dawson Street, good all round musicianship just about compensated for one major disappointment. The concert was part of the Orchestra of St Cecilia's Bach cantata series. The choir for the series is Madrigal 75 and the conductor is Geoffrey Spratt.
Bach wrote his funeral Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, which he subtitled Actus Tragicus, when he was about 32. The text travels from mourning to joyous certainty, and Bach's music is immaculately designed to portray this journey in a myriad of musical allegories. Chief among these is the scoring: the earthbound soul is represented by two violas da gamba and the heavens by two recorders. The only other instruments are in the continuo.
Given the importance of these instrumental colours, it was disappointing to hear modern violas instead of gambas and flutes instead of recorders. Granted, economics bare an issue. But please! Gamba and recorder players would pay to participate in this incomparable piece!
That apart, the performance was well worth hearing. So was that of the other piece on the programme, the short Mass in A, BWV 234, which cannibalises earlier works for its six movements. The singing of the soloists - Helen Hassett (soprano), Colette McGahon (mezzo), Robin Tritschler (tenor) and Nyle Wolfe (bass) was full of character; and, in Gottes Zeil, Hassett was superb.
The orchestra was not always reliable enough to sustain one to a part playing, though the continuo group was excellent. I have heard Madrigal 75 in better form, too, both in intonation and general security. Yet I left the concert full of the joys this music can bring, thanks to the musicians strong shaping, rhythmic elan and committed music making.