Bach Akademie Australia is a period instrument group based in Sydney. It is less than ten years old but, under the direction of violinist Madeleine Easton, has made quite a mark on the Baroque music scene. This concert, touring to some other centres, features the American countertenor Reginald Mobley in a programme entitled ‘God’s Holy Spirit’. The concert unsurprisingly concentrated, but not exclusively, on works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The first item was a piece by Johann Christoph Bach, JS’s older cousin, composing in the later 17th century. This single movement work, Ach, daß ich Wassers g’nug hätte, is labelled as a lamento; while having some resemblance to the earlier laments by the likes of Monteverdi, it is a lament for one’s sins rather than for a bereavement (or a lost love). This introduced us to the pure, rather ethereal voice of Mobley. Easton then stepped forward for an entertaining chat to the audience, discussing the just-played work as something emanating from an earlier period of “world trauma”.
Next up was an orchestral offering, Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor , BWV1067, featuring a virtuosic contribution by flautist Mikaela Oberg. The small orchestra (otherwise strings and basso continuo) provided sumptuous sounds, and the final movement, the well-known Badinerie, was fleet and full of brio.
Mobley returned for the Bach cantata Ich habe genug, which exists in versions for soprano and bass as well as alto (there may be a tenor version but I haven’t heard one). Mobley was well suited to this work at one level, singing with precision, well-rounded phrasing, excellent projection and obvious feeling, but his voice lacked body and shadings of colour. The mellow oboe obbligato was provided by Mark Baigent.
After an interval, a change of pace was provided by Vivaldi’s antiphon Salve Regina (RV 616), a Catholic Marian work which, as Easton pointed out, contrasted with the Protestant Bach. It is also more flamboyant, indeed, operatic than the German works. Again, Mobley produced beautiful pure tone with some very fine floated high notes, but came up a little short when coloratura was called for. Oberg returned as a recorder player alongside Alicia Crossley.
The evening concluded with another but less common Bach cantata, Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV54, a recognition of sin and the need to reject it. This does not approach the serenity of Ich habe genug, with the last movement especially suggesting a struggle with an entwining serpent. As before, it was sung with beautifully clear tone and enunciation, and intense feeling.
