Madison Bach Musicians with Bella Voce

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Kent Sweitzer

The 2022 Madison Bach Musicians Baroque Holiday Concert.

The 2022 Madison Bach Musicians Baroque Holiday Concert.

Madison Bach Musicians’ annual holiday concert is one of those traditions that sneaks up on you — and suddenly you’re reminded why live music in December hits differently. This year, the vocal ensemble Bella Voce returns to join MBM’s period-instrument players for a globe-trotting Christmas program that moves from Schütz to Charpentier, with Handel, Corelli, Bouzignac, and Isabella Leonarda along the way. It’s a program that lets you sink into old-world harmony without feeling like you’re trapped in a pageant; these are intimate, beautifully crafted works brought to life by musicians who really know how to make this music breathe. A 2:15 p.m. lecture precedes the concert.

media release: It is a joy to have Evanston’s celebrated Bella Voce vocal ensemble return in collaboration with Madison Bach Musicians’ instrumental forces for our 15th Annual Holiday Concert. This year, six outstanding Baroque composers will guide us through the Christmas season in Italy, France, Germany, and England.

We’ll start with the music of the indefatigable and prolific Heinrich Schütz, whose long career in Dresden spanned and somehow survived—the tumultuous Thirty Years War (1618-1648). His vocal fanfare Ein Kind ist uns geboren (To Us a Child is Born) proclaims the key message of the season. Next, we’ll feature MBM’s elegant new Baroque chamber organ in George Frederic Handel’s Organ Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6; Handel himself frequently used these concertos as entr’actes—musical palate cleansers really—in his London concerts. We’ll then enter the daring sonic world of Guillaume Bouzignac, choir master in several cities throughout central France during the first half of the 17th century. Bouzignac’s surviving two books of motets are unique for the period, often employing an angular yet satisfying dramatic dialog style. Noe! pastores, canticum novum is a prime example.

From what is sometimes called the golden age of the violin (late 17th-century Italy), we’ll hear Corelli’s incomparable writing for strings in the Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6 No. 8, entitled Fatto per la Notte di Natale (Created for Christmas Night). No other work conveys the hope and mystery of Christmas with such seemingly effortless mastery of form; the concluding Pastorale—depicting the watchful shepherds—is one of the most touching outpourings of melody ever penned. The first half of the program concludes with Isabella Leonarda’s exalted Magnificat. Leonarda—who entered the Ursuline convent of Collegio di Sant’Orsola at the age of 16 and remained there until her death at age 84—became a ranking administrator and was a prolific and published composer particularly during the last 30 years of her life.

The most expansive work on the program, c. 30 minutes, is the breathtakingly beautiful Messe de minuit pour Noël (Mass for Christmas Midnight) by Marc Antoine Charpentier. This intricate work, in which Charpentier magically weaves together no fewer than ten French carols, gives us a chance to reflect upon the season. Our concert ends with a jubilant return to Schütz. His Hodie Christus natus est (Christ is Born this Day) is written in an energetic six-part choral style. The instruments get swept up in the high spirits and join in colla parte for this full-out Christmas celebration .

Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)—Messe de minuit pour Noël, H.9

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)—Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6 No. 8

Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759)—Concerto for Organ in B-flat major, Op. 4 No. 6

Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672)—Ein Kind ist uns geboren, SWV 384; Hodie Christus natus est, SWV 456

Guillaume Bouzignac (c. 1587–c. 1643)—Noe! pastores, canticum novum

Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704)—Magnificat, Op. 19