[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv49QQsXRtA&w=560&h=315]
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting much more frequently about the repertoire for the 106th Bethlehem Bach Festival. There is much beautiful music, wonderful fellowship, and stunning artistry on tap for this year’s Festival, as we celebrate 30 years of Greg Funfgeld’s visionary artistic leadership. The schedule for the Festival follows:
Fridays, May 3 & 10, 2013
2pm Distinguished Scholar Lecture – Dr. Michael Marissen
Black Box Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
4pm Bach Cantatas & Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy
Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
Bach Cantata 71 – Gott ist mein König
Bach Cantata 180 – Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele
Beethoven – Choral Fantasy for chorus, orchestra, & piano solo, Op. 80
5:30pm Buffet Dinner with informal talk – Dr. Larry Lipkis
Asa Packer Room, Lehigh University Center
8pm Bach Cantatas & Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna
Packer Memorial Church
Cantata BWV 119, Preise Jerusalem, den Herrn
Morten Lauridsen, Lux Aeterna
Cantata BWV 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
Saturdays, May 4 & 11, 2013
10:30am RIOULT Modern Dance Company with the Bach Festival Orchestra
Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center
RIOULT presents a passionate all-Bach program performed with the Bach Festival Orchestra: Celestial Tides to the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6; City to the Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 6 in G Major; and Views of the Fleeting World to seven movements of Bach’s great Art of Fugue. Founded in 1994, RIOULT is based in New York City and tours nationally and internationally. It has fast become an established name in modern dance with a reputation for creating and presenting the sensual, articulate, and
exquisitely musical choreography of Pascal Rioult.
12:30pm Festival Picnic Lunch
An up-scale picnic lunch (Place TBD). Members of the Heritage Society and Guarantors in the top three giving circles ($750+) are our guests.
2:30pm The Mass in B Minor (Part 1) and 4:30pm (Part 2)
Packer Memorial Church
The Mass in B Minor has been the heart of the Festival since 1900. Bring a friend, family member or young student who has never before experienced the emotional power of Bach’s monumental masterpiece.
Friday 4pm concerts – Adults: $20-$28 Students: $10
Friday 8 pm concerts – Adults: $20-$28 Students: $10
Saturday 10:30 am – Adults: $27 Students: $10
Saturday Mass in B Minor – Adults: $40 – $57 Students: $20
I plan to post about the repertoire by writing about the Lauridsen and Beethoven separately, and then a few combined posts about Cantatas No. 180 and 1, and Cantatas No. 71 and 119, and will post updates during the week of orchestral rehearsals, next week. Along the way, I’ll share an interview I had with Tom Goeman, our fantastic Assistant Director, Organist, and Accompanist, and you can read an interview I had with Morten Lauridsen, the composer of the Lux Aeterna, which is on the program for the Friday night concerts, that I’ve already posted. It’s a banner year for The Choir, and we’re celebrating with an embarrassment of riches. Stay tuned!
