BACKGROUND

Sono Luminus is releasing Boulder Bach Festival a recording that features works by J.S. Bach and Johann Christoph Bach made at the conclusion of the Boulder Bach Festival in 2022, marking the first commercial release from the festival, and including J.S. Bach’s Concerto in D minor for two violins, strings and basso continuo, the Concerto in D minor for harpsichord and strings, and Johann Christoph Bach’s Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte and the motet Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben, with featured performers, including festival Music Director Zachary Carrettin, violinist YuEun Kim, festival Artistic Director Mina Gajić, soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg, mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan and cellist Coleman Itzkoff.

THE MUSIC AND THE RECORDING

J.S. Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor for two violins, strings and basso continuo, BWV 1043, and the D minor keyboard concerto, BWV 1052, both were written for Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum, a group made up of university students that performed weekly at Zimmermann’s public coffee house.

Johann Christoph Bach (1642–1703) served as the organist and harpsichordist in the court chapel of the Duke of Eisenach. He authored Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte, a lament scored for alto voice and string ensemble, and the motet Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben.

Producer: Erica Brenner; Engineers: Daniel Shores and Erica Brenner

THE PERFORMANCE

Violinists Zachary Carrettin and Yueun Kim deliver outstanding playing in Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor. Festival Artistic Director Mina Gajić – whose work as a superbly accomplished pianist I have long admired and reviewed – makes the D minor keyboard concerto sound as if it had been written for her. Both the gifted vocal soloists – soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg and mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan – sing with impeccable command of the JC Bach sacred Baroque style. Cellist Coleman Itzkoff provides a rock-solid foundation throughout the concert. All six artists shine in the closing concert of the indispensable Boulder Bach Festival.

Rafael de Acha (c)2023