VOICES OF VIENNA
october 5, 2025 at 4 pm bach and telemann
KIDS come free concert
BACH Cantata 7
TELEMANN Concerto for Two Oboes and Violin
Bel Air United Methodist Church 21 Linwood Avenue | Bel Air his Symphony No. 6 in the same key. The nickname appears to have been first used by Sir George Grove( of Grove’ s Dictionary of Music and Musicians fame), derived from Schubert’ s mentioning in a letter that some large-scale chamber pieces he was working on would serve as preparation for a grosse Sinfonie( a“ large” or“ great” symphony) he intended to write. It turned out to be a“ great” symphony in both quantity and quality.
This symphony was played in a sightreading rehearsal by the Vienna Society of Friends of Music in 1827 or 1828, but it was not performed publicly until after the composer’ s death: the finale alone in 1836 at the Redoutensaal in Vienna, the entire symphony( with some cuts) in 1839, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Composer Robert Schumann, who had discovered the manuscript in the possession of the composer’ s brother, Ferdinand Schubert, penned a rapturous review in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.
Here, beside sheer musical mastery of the technique of composition, is life in every fiber, color in the finest shadings, meaning everywhere, the most acute etching of detail, and all flooded with a Romanticism which we have encountered elsewhere in Franz Schubert. And this heavenly length, like a fat novel in four volumes by Jean
Paul— never-ending …. It is still evidence of an extraordinary talent that he who heard so little of his own instrumental work during his lifetime could achieve such an idiomatic treatment both of individual instruments and of the whole orchestra, securing an effect as of human voices and chorus in discourse.
The symphony’ s length engendered ongoing complaints, but the eminent turn-of-the-century conductor Felix Weingartner defended it:“ How grand it stands before us in its four glorious movements!— the first swelling with life and strength, the second a gipsy romance with the wonderful secret horn motive( the heavenly guest, as Schumann so beautifully expressed it), the splendid scherzo, and the finale filled with gigantic humor. … This work, lasting in performance over an hour without break,— which is quite unusual for a symphony,— is able to fascinate us and carry us along with it.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.
JAMES M. KELLER has served as the longtime program annotator of the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony, where he recently completed his 25th season. He is the author of Chamber Music: A Listener’ s Guide( Oxford University Press).
november 2, 2025 at 4 pm bach Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor Cantata 182
with Maryland State Boychoir Stephen Holmes, Director
Church of the Resurrection 11525 Greenspring Avenue | Timonium
november 23, 2025 at 4 pm
bach mass in B minor
One of the greatest artistic achievements of all time!
St. Joseph Parish 100 Church Lane | Cockeysville
purchase tickets at bachinbaltimore. org Group Discount 8 +, call 410-941-9262
Get a 10 % discount with code: BSO10
Bach in Baltimore is supported in part by grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, Harford County Cultural Arts Board, Howard County Arts Council, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, Citizens of Baltimore County, Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust, the Macht Fund of THE ASSOCIATED, the John J. Leidy Foundation, BCF Mitzvah Fund, Preston G. & Nancy M. Athey, and the Wolman Family Foundation.
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