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Saint Barnabas Church
November 9, 2019
Upon arriving for this recital, I was handed a programme welcoming me to the Saint Barnabas Early Music Organ Recital Series. The programme somehow omitted to note that this was both the first performance of the Saint Barnabas Early Music series and the first recital ever given on the church's organ, despite the fact that it was installed in 1990. Saint Barnabas and its Music Director, Michael Jarvis, have, however, ambitious plans for their early music series and for their organ. On the basis of this evening's performance, there is every reason to welcome this new series and to be thankful that the Church's organ will be heard in public performances.
This evening's recital placed Bach in his historical context by presenting works by the North German composers of music and juxtaposing them with works by Bach. The performer was the harpsichordist and organist, Christina Hutten. Currently based at UBC, Hutten has studied in and performed in Europe and around North America.
The recital opened with Bach's Praeludium and Fuga in C, BWV531. This work, with its bright fanfare-like opening, was the ideal piece with which to open the performance. Hatten gave the work a suitably effervescent performance. The choice of registration was excellent and the counterpoint emerged clearly.
It was immediately apparent that the organ at Saint Barnabas is a remarkable instrument. It is a small organ, built in the style of seventeenth-century North German instruments. It is ideally suited to this modestly-sized church and can produces an astonishing variety of tone colours for an instrument its size (think of a very large wardrobe). The instrument is perfectly suited to the pieces on this evening's performance.
After the opening work by Bach, Hatten went back to the beginning of the North German organ tradition and performed two works by Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663). The first of these works, a Praeambulum in F, contrasted sharply with the opening Bach. It is a contemplative work with moments of whimsy and Hatten's performance was appropriately thoughtful. The second piece, based on the motet "Dixit Maria ad Angelum" by Hans Leo Hassler, was played on a breathy stop befitting a work originally for voices. The relaxed tempo lent the work a reflective mood that gradually gave way to ecstasy.
Next up were a toccata by Matthias Weckmann and an organ chorale by Buxtehude, Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt. By this point it was becoming apparent just how carefully the programme has been chosen, with each piece displaying a dramatically different character and showing off another side of the marvelous instrument. Hutten did a wonderful job of bringing out the distinctive character of each piece. The Weckmann had a spontaneous, improvisatory feel, as befits a toccata, while the Buxtehude was thoughtful, even grave, as is appropriate to a chorale on the theme of the fall of man.
In addition to surveying the organ music of the seventeenth century, this evening's programme allowed the audience to hear the doctrine of the affects, or Affektenlehre as it was known in Germany, and the ideal of musica poetica, in action. The theorist Joachim Burmeister's Musica poetica (1599; second edition 1606) argued that a musical work is like an oration and, as such, designed to move the affects. Athanasius Kricher, in his Musurgia universalis (1650) speaks instead of musica pathetica, but agrees that music is to move the affects.
The first half of the performance concluded with two fugues by Jean-Henri d'Anglebert and a toccata by Girolamo Frescobaldi. Neither, obviously, belonged to the North German school of organists, but both were known to Bach. Bach used d'Anglebert's table of ornaments in his teaching and copied out several works by Frescobaldi.
The d'Angelbert works were rather serious and meditative, though the subject of the meditation was unclear. The Frescobaldi (Toccata quarta da sonarsi alla Levatione) in contrast, is clearly intended as a mediation on the elevation of the host during the mass. The work is quirky, moving like wafting incense, and gives the impression of something on the edge of understanding. Hutten performance captured this sense of something not quite understood and had the audience rapt.
The second half of the recital began with a Praeludium in C by Georg Böhm, one of Bach's teachers. Hutton opened up the stops and blew some of the carbon out of the organ. The contrast between the understated reading of the Frescobaldi and the celebratory, festive Böhm was quite striking.
The Böhm was followed by a series of works by members of Bach's family, Heinrich Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, and Johann Michael Bach. Each work was distinctive, and distinctively characterised by Hutten. The music was, by turns, joyful, contemplative and steadfast. The set conclude with a Ciaconna in D minor by Johann Pachelbel. This work veered, in Hutten's capable hands, from the playful to the frenetic.
The performance concluded with selections — nine or ten (I lost count) — from Bach's Partita Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig, BWV768. Each selection was individual and individuated. In contrast with the music of some of his predecessors, I found Bach's music, for all of its artistry, rather enigmatic. We know that Bach was committed, like his contemporaries, to the Affektenlehre, but it is difficult to determine precisely what affect each piece is designed to express. Perhaps this is what some people find so appealing about this sort of work by Bach.
All in all, this was a delightful recital of an appealing selection of music. Hutten is a fine performer but the star of the evening was the Saint Barnabas organ. I look forward to hearing more recitals on the marvelous, if rather modestly-sized, instrument. It is really a gem and a huge asset to the Victoria musical community. I also look forward to hearing it concert in the Saint Barnabas early music series. I am glad I was there for the first performance in the series.
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