Bach Virtuosi Festival, which includes world renowned musicians, some of whom perform with the New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and teach at The Juilliard School and Eastman School of Music, will have two performances at the Upper West Side’s Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch (552 West End Avenue at 87th Street) on May 14 and 21. The festival’s second concert, Bach by Candlelight, on May 17 sold out within weeks of going on sale, and the festival announced that only 100 tickets remain for its two performances at St. Ignatius. If interested in attending, it is recommended to buy tickets before the festival begins.
Lewis Kaplan, 90, who has lived on the Upper West Side since the early-1960s, and is in his 60th year as a member of the Violin Faculty at The Juilliard School, directs Bach Virtuosi Festival, which also includes renowned violinists Renée Jolles and Ariadne Daskalakis, cellists Beiliang Zhu and Nathan Whittaker, flutist Emi Ferguson, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, soprano Sherezade Panthaki, countertenor Jay Carter, and John Thiessen, one of the greatest baroque trumpet players alive, among many others.
Labeled a “can’t miss classical event of the summer” by The Boston Globe Classical Music Staff, Bach Virtuosi Festival, which has been held in Portland, Maine for the past eight years, debuts in New York this May. A limited number of tickets are available at bachvirtuosifestival.org/tickets.
The theme for the opening night concert is “The Eternal Bach,” named after a phonograph record, known as “The Golden Record,” which has been on the NASA spacecraft Voyager 1 since 1977 when it launched and is still in outer space today. Contained on this record are sounds and images from Earth (in the event the spacecraft comes into contact with extraterrestrial beings), including 20 works of music, of which three are by J.S. Bach — each will be performed at the opening of the festivals in New York and Portland (June 19-25).
Some of the pieces in the New York program will be Brandenburg Concerti Nos. 2 & 5, The Well Tempered Clavier Book 2, Jesu meine Freude, Sonata in B minor for flute and continuo, Organ Trio Sonata, as well as other works.
The May 21 concert, “What a Century! Bach Handel Vivaldi,” features Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, a selection of oratorios (from The Choice of Hercules, Solomon, and Saul) by George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi’s Harpsichord Concerto in F Major, BWV 978, which was arranged by J.S. Bach, and Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050.
Having launched the festival eight years ago (2016) in Portland, Maine, Bach Virtuosi Festival is appreciated for the world renowned musicians that Lewis Kaplan brings to the festival each year. One example is Richard Goode, the internationally-celebrated pianist. While having dinner in the winter of 2023, Kaplan asked his friend and colleague of 30 years to perform in Portland that summer. Without hesitation, Mr. Goode happily accepted, and the concert was one of the most well-attended and cherished concerts in the festival’s eight years.
The festival will begin on Monday, May 13 with a lecture from Christoph Wolff, author and one of the world’s foremost experts on Bach. The venue, TenFourteen, is a historic townhouse across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is the beginning of a truly magical week of music.
Splendid. We could always use more Bach. And remember, for those who can’t make this, there’s one last Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity on the 18th over on 65th and CPW.