“When people think about classical music, a couple of pieces by Bach always come right at the top of the list,” says Dr Benjamin Thorn, organiser of the biennial New England Bach Festival celebrating the great 18th century German Baroque composer.
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“Bach has got this wonderful sense of invention – and he’s not afraid to do something different,” Dr Thorn said.
Nor is the festival, which runs from Thursday to Sunday this week. It offers an eclectic mixture from chamber music and dramatic cantatas to jazz fusion Baroque tribute bands and organ crawls.
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This is the seventh time Dr Thorn has organised the event, which has been running since 2003.
"What I’ve always tried to do with these festivals is make sure that things appeal to a range of people. There’s no point in trying to do a festival just for a narrow elite.”
Bach is at once a composer of wide appeal and a technically sophisticated, almost mathematical genius. “He’s got a very solid sense of structure,” Dr Thorn said, “but magical flair and imagination.”
In his own day, Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a Leipzig church organist, and it was not until Mendelssohn championed his music in the 1820s that he shot to posthumous fame. Today, his place is secure, a shining star in the musical firmament.
“Music,” Robert Schumann said, “owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder,” while Beethoven called him “the immortal god of harmony”.
Outside music, Douglas Adams, of Hitchhiker’s Guide fame, believed him “the greatest genius who ever walked among us”, and philosopher Emil Cioran thought “Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded as a complete failure”.
Many of the concerts take place at the Uniting Church. The Armidale-based Lotti Trio will perform baroque trios and more, including Dr Thorn’s new piece Fracas, at the Uniting Church on Thursday night. Israeli-born multikeyboard virtuoso Michael Tsalka and Australian harpsichordist Diana Weston will play music by Bach and some of his numerous sons on Friday evening.
The EphenStephen guitar duo will play their arrangements of the Goldberg Variations and the French Suite on Saturday lunchtime. “They’re doing their own version of Bach,” Dr Thorn said, “so it’s always alive, always new.”
That’s followed by the Armidale Organ Crawl, from St Mary and Joseph’s Cathedral to the Unitnig Church, via St Peter’s and St Paul’s. Armidale is almost unique, Dr Thorn said, in having four organs within walking distance – not many places in the world have really good organs so close together. “It gives Armidale a unique flavour.”
For a more contemporary, pop vibe, Saturday evening will see a tribute to the 1970s rock group Sky, with their electronic arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
“The musicians have worked across different styles,” Dr Thorn said. “They’ve got a very strong background in popular music and in classical music. It’s a combination which can really do exciting things.”
The festival winds down on Sunday with a cello and dance in the Uniting Church in the afternoon; and the Armidale Symphony Orchestra performing Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn at St Mary and Joseph’s Cathedral.
A couple of the events are free – “so anyone can come along and get a taste”. The public can come to a performance of the Peasant Cantata in Hanna’s Arcade Saturday morning, an atypical piece where Bach plays at being a peasant and uses folktunes; and to a festival evensong service at St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral on Sunday night, featuring Bach’s Cantata 44 “Sie werden euch in den Bann tun”.
For more information, including concert times, prices, and booking, visit www.ne-bach-festival.com or www.facebook.com/NewEnglandBachFestival/, or contact Dr Thorn on 6772 5889 or by emailing benjaminthorn@bigpond.com.
Tickets can be purchased at the door, through www.trybooking.com, at branches of Regional Australia Bank, or by post sending booking form and cheque to 21 North Street, Armidale, NSW 2350.