Chicago Area's 49th Annual Bach Week Festival To Bring Baroque Masterworks To Chicago And Evanston

The Chicago area's 49th annual Bach Week Festival will present concerts in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, from April 24 to May 12, 2022.

Performances will include the Baroque music festival's first mainstage period-instrument program; a concert of Johann Sebastian Bach sacred and secular vocal masterworks, including the great "Magnificat" of 1723; the return of international piano sensation Sergei Babayan in an all-Bach solo recital; and a concert of Bach keyboard and violin concertos paired with a double-flute concerto by a Bach contemporary, composer-flutist Johann Joachim Quantz.

"What's striking, to me, about this year's festival is the presence of works we've never performed before, alongside compositions that have been mainstays over the decades," says Richard Webster, Bach Week's music director since 1975. "We're always on the lookout for ways to refresh and renew the festival."

Webster played harpsichord and organ at Evanston's first Bach Week in 1974, which he helped organize, while a senior at Northwestern University's music school. He will also play organ and harpsichord at some of this season's concerts.

Festival opener April 24 spotlights Bach and composers he admired

J. S. Bach's music has influenced generations of classical and pop musicians. But whose music did Bach listen to?

"Bach and Before," the Bach Week Festival's free season-opener concert, aims to shed light on that subject with a performance by a chamber ensemble of accomplished period-instrument players at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at All Saints' Episcopal Church, 4550 N. Hermitage Avenue, in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood.

Curated by early music specialist Jason J. Moy, Bach Week's principal organist and harpsichordist, it's the festival's first all-period-instrument mainstage concert, as well as the festival's first-ever event in Ravenswood.

"This program explores the musical riches of the German "Stylus Phantasticus" with works by relatively unknown composers who inspired and influenced the young J. S. Bach," Moy says.

The concert will open with J. S. Bach's "An Wasserflüssen Babylon," BWV 653, for solo organ, followed by Dieterich Buxtehude's Trio Sonata in C Major, BuxWV 266; Nicolaus Adam Strungk's Contrapunct sopra la Bassigaylos d'Altr/ "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern"; Georg Böhm's Variations on "Wer nur den Liebe Gott lässt walten"; Johann Adam Reincken's Sonata No. 1 in A Minor from "Hortus Musicus"; Buxtehude's Trio Sonata in B-flat Major, BuxWV 255; and Johann Pachelbel's Partie IV, from "Musicalische Ergötzung."

Artists include Emi Tanabe, baroque violin; Wendy Benner, baroque violin; Anna Steinhoff, viola da gamba; Jerry Fuller, violone; Moy on harpsichord; and Bach Week's Webster on organ.

Webster notes that since Bach Week's founding, which predates the period-instrument movement, the festival has emphasized performances on modern orchestral instruments, as does, for example, Chicago's Music of the Baroque.

"Jason Moy's program offers an exciting new twist to the festival," Webster says. "The audience will experience a style of Baroque music with an imaginative, freewheeling, improvisatory character, played in a historically authentic manner."

Moy is artistic director of Ars Musica Chicago and a faculty member at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and at DePaul University School of Music, where he is the inaugural recipient of the Monsignor Kenneth J. Velo Endowed Distinguished Professorship.

The free concert is funded through a generous donation from Bob and Margaret McCamant.

Bach: Sacred and Secular Masterworks April 29

The festival returns to its traditional format of modern instruments for a program titled "Bach: Sacred and Secular Masterworks" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29, at North Park University's Anderson Chapel, 5159 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago.

The concert opens on a high-energy note with a Bach Week Festival first, the March for 3 Trumpets and Timpani by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, a son of. J. S. Bach and an influential composer in his own right.

Another work having its Bach Week premiere is J. S. Bach's "Peasant" cantata "Mer Hahn en neue Oberkeet" (We have a new lord of the manner), BWV 212, which comprises 24 movements, more than any of Bach's hundreds of other cantatas.

It depicts a lighthearted, flirtatious exchange between a farmer and his wife as they prepare to attend a celebration honoring a high-ranking royal official, who is generously providing beer for the occasion.

Bach's exuberant "Magnificat" in D Major, BWV 243, is among his most cherished sacred works. Its text comes from the Gospel of Luke, where Mary proclaims, "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" (My soul magnifies the Lord).

"It's a showcase for all of Bach's musical gifts, conveying in 12 compact movements a spectrum of color, character, and emotion," Webster says.

Soloists are Josefien Stoppelenberg, soprano; Lindsay Metzger, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Lee, tenor; and David Govertsen, bass-baritone, with the Bach Week Festival Chorus and Orchestra and North Park University Chamber Singers, conducted by Webster.

Stoppelenberg, a Bach Week favorite, also performs with Chicago's Third Coast Baroque and Haymarket Opera Company, the Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar, Arizona Bach Festival, St. Louis Bach Society, Boulder Bach Festival, Cincinnati Bach Ensemble, and Camerata Amsterdam in the Netherlands, among other ensembles.

Making her Bach Week debut, Metzger is a graduate of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Opera Center. Among other engagements, she sang the role of Mercédès in Georges Bizet's "Carmen" at the Lyric Opera with guest conductor Harry Bicket and reprised the role in her company debut with the Dallas Opera under Music Director Emmanuel Villaume.

Another new voice at Bach Week, Lee has soloed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under conductor Marin Alsop and sung with Pittsburgh Opera Theater. In 2018, he became the youngest full-time regular chorister with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus.

An alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center, Govertsen appeared in the role of producer La Roche opposite Renée Fleming and Anne Sophie von Otter in Richard Strauss's "Capriccio" at the Lyric Opera. He appeared as Arkel in Claude Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" with the Chicago Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen and as a soloist in James MacMillan's "Quickening" with the Grant Park Orchestra.

Supported in part by a grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the concert is a partnership between the Bach Week Festival and North Park University's School of Music, Art, and Theatre.

Babayan Plays Bach's 'The Well-Tempered Clavier,' Book 1, May 10

Sergei Babayan, the celebrated Armenian-American pianist praised by The New York Times for his "consummate technique and insight," will play J. S. Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier," Book 1, BWV 846-869, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.

A landmark in the history of Western classical music, Bach's set of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys has never fallen out of favor. They've been studied and performed by musicians from Bach's era to the present day, including Mozart and Beethoven.

"When Sergei plays Bach on the piano, his range of expression is equal to the range of expression in all of Bach's music," Webster says. "The sounds he gets out of the piano are sounds I've never heard before in Bach's keyboard works. And he does it in the most convincing way."

Babayan performs with the world's foremost orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

He is a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive recording artist; his latest release, "Rachmaninoff," was hailed by the international press as a groundbreaking recording and received numerous awards including BBC Recording of the Month.

Babayan's Bach Week recital is sponsored by the Howard and Ursula Dubin Foundation.

Bach and Quantz: Concertos for Flute, Violin, and Keyboard May 12

The 49th annual Bach Week Festival finale features violin and keyboard concertos by J. S. Bach and a double-flute concerto by Baroque composer-flutist Johann Joachim Quantz in a concert 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12, at Evanston's Nichols Concert Hall.

Flutist Jennifer Gunn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and John Thorne, principal flute of the Chicago Philharmonic, will solo in Quantz's Concerto for 2 Flutes in G Minor, QV 6:8. This will be the first time Quantz's music has ever been performed at Bach Week.

Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat of the Black Oak Ensemble and multiple Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio will solo in Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, BWV 1042.

Pianist Babayan, who has been cycling through Bach's keyboard concertos on return visits to Bach Week, will solo in Bach's keyboard Concerto No. 6 in F Major, BWV 1057, the composer's own arrangement of his Brandenburg Concerto No. 4.

"Babayan's traversals of Bach's concertos electrify his fellow Bach Week musicians just as they delight and enthrall concertgoers," Webster says. "He keeps all of us on our toes. He is extremely focused. He is at one with Bach, at one with the piano, and at one with his collaborators on stage."

The April 24 chamber concert at All Saints' Church is free and open to the public, but reservations are required via bachweek.org.

Single-ticket admission prices for the other Bach Week concerts are $50 for VIP seating, $35 adult general admission, $25 seniors, and $15 students with ID. Subscriptions to the three ticketed concerts are $120 for VIP seating; $80 adult general admission; $60 seniors; and $30 students with ID.

Tickets can be purchased online at https://bachweek.org/2022-festival, by phone at 847-269-9050, or by mail to Bach Week Festival, 1555 Sherman Avenue, Suite 312, Evanston, Illinois 60201. For general festival information, phone 847-269-9050 or email info@bachweek.org.

Bach Week Festival's COVID-19 policy requires that, upon entry, all visitors over the age of 5 show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination status or a negative COVID PCR test processed within 48 hours prior to the day of the event. Audience members ages 16 and up must also present a photo ID. Individuals who have recently traveled internationally are not permitted unless they show proof of a negative COVID PCR test taken 3-5 days after returning to the United States.

The Bach Week Festival additionally requires all audience members ages 2 and up to wear a mask over their nose and mouth for the duration of the event. Masks will be provided to those who do not have them. Anyone exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 the day of the performance, including fever, shortness of breath or coughing, should not attend the event.

This policy is subject to changes based on current federal, state, and local guidelines and recommendations.

A musical rite of spring on Chicago's North Shore since 1974, Bach Week is one of the Midwest's premiere Baroque music festivals. The event enlists musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and other top-tier ensembles, while featuring some of the Chicago area's finest instrumental and vocal soloists and distinguished guest artists from out of town.

Funding for the 2022 Bach Week festival comes from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; the MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; the Howard and Ursula Dubin Foundation; the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; and Bob and Margaret McCamant.

2022 Bach Week Festival Schedule
All programs are subject to change.

Sunday, April 24, 3:00 PM
All Saints' Episcopal Church, Ravenswood
4550 N. Hermitage Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60640
"Bach and Before"

Friday, April 29, 7:30 p.m.
Anderson Chapel, North Park University
5159 N. Spaulding Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60625
"Bach: Sacred and Secular Masterworks"

Tuesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall
1490 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, Illinois 60201
"Babayan Plays Bach"

Thursday, May 12, 7:30 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall
1490 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, Illinois 60201
"Bach and Quantz: Concertos for Flute, Violin, and Keyboard"

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