Baroque Holiday Concert

Madison Bach Musicians’ holiday concert

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The Madison Bach Musicians offered relief from seasonal clichés with their seventh annual Baroque Holiday Concert on Dec. 9. The event at a packed First Congregational Church included music an audience would be glad to hear any of time of the year.

The enchanting program opened with Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6, No. 12 — mercifully, not the No. 8, which is known as the “Christmas Concerto.” The full string complement of seven players may have de-emphasized the weight contrasts between the solo trio and the full ripieno, but the crystal-clear clarity was delightful. Antonio Vivaldi’s Latin Cantata, “In furore iustissimae irae,” is a powerful evocation of divine rage, and soprano Alisa Jordheim matched her powerful voice strongly to its moods, with lovely embellishments in the first da capo aria.

As hackneyed as Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” cycle is by now, the fourth concerto of the set, “Winter,” was turned into a vividly programmatic romp by the string players. Founder-director Trevor Stephenson gave his usual talk before the program, pointing out all the vigor, color and action in Vivaldi’s work, bolstering the performance itself.

The second half of the program was entirely devoted to J. S. Bach. First, we heard two brief spiritual songs from the collection that Bach worked up with the publisher Schemelli. These were sung with warm and velvety tone by baritone Joshua Copeland. He also sang an appealing aria from Bach’s Cantata BWV 36.

He was joined by everyone else, including the oboist Aaron Hill, for the Cantata BWV 32. This is a dialogue between the personification of Soul and Jesus, resulting in their blessed union. Jordheim used her projecting voice to fine effect, but baritone Copeland did not have the vocal fullness and authority for the part of the savior.

They all returned for an encore — and this was something Christmassy after all, the harmonized chorale “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.”