Bach Soloists Offer a Heavenly Program

The Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College, the group behind Chamber Music in Historic Sites, consistently presents the best and most provocative early music in town. Sunday at Wilshire Christian Church, when the American Bach Soloists made their local debut, was no exception.

The Bay Area-based period performance ensemble, led by tenor Jeffrey Thomas, offered four Bach cantatas, splendidly sung and played. Performed without a conductor most of the time, and one musician to a part, the music emerged pliable and caressed, clear in every detail but without fuss.

Leipzigers in Bach’s time could count on going to Sunday service and hearing a cantata, often still ink-wet, by their music director. In his 27 years in Leipzig, Bach composed some 300 of them, five complete sets for every Sunday of the year.

The cantatas heard in these performances (Nos. 22, 81, 82 and 199) were generally somber and sober in cast, in keeping with their original occasion. The famous “Ich habe genug” (No. 199), for instance, is a calm and quietly joyous greeting of death, and Bach used only subtle touches to illustrate the text, as in the aria “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen” (Slumber now, ye eyes so weary) with its recurrent pauses--the music dozing.

But Bach, when the moment suited, certainly could let fly, and the wonderful storm sequence in “Jesus schlaft, was soll ich hoffen”--darting violins and fearful singing--became vivid in the Bach Soloists’ hands.

The singing--by soprano Tamara Matthews, countertenor Drew Minter, bass Robert Stafford, and Thomas--proved uniformly communicative and glowing. The strong instrumental contingent had as standouts violinist Katherine Kyme and oboist John Abberger. At a small Baroque organ, Thomas or Jonathan Dimmock anchored the luxurious continuo section, its timbre as puffy as a pillow, as rich as cream.