Review: Bach Society’s Candlelight Concert, first time at the 560

The Bach Society of Saint Louis has performed its annual Christmas Candlelight concert since 1951, in most recent years at Powell Symphony Hall.  With the current Powell Hall renovations, the Christmas Candlelight concert migrated to the 560 Music Center at Washington University for the first time, with two performances on Saturday, December 9.  The attendance on Saturday evening looked well over 90% by eyeball, which led to a ~15-minute “delay of game”, a good problem that not all performing arts organizations have now.  Of course, another practical reason was to make sure that the audience was fully seated and the aisles were clear, for the opening procession.  

Following a welcome speech from Bach Society executive director Melissa Payton, music director and primary concert conductor A. Dennis Sparger took the podium.  The 560 then went dark, except for the battery-powered synthetic mini-candles (for obvious fire safety and carpet maintenance reasons) in the chorus members’ hands.  The opening procession featured “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”, “O Come, Little Children”, “Away in a Manger”, and “Good Christian Men, Rejoice”, as the chorus strode the three inner aisles of the 560 to the front of the hall, and then on stage by the sets of side stairs.  There was also a second conductor at the back of the hall using a glow stick as a baton.

Though not from a Christmas-themed work, the sprightly opening movement of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” followed, to make the mood more upbeat.  Interestingly, the audience didn’t immediately applaud after the movement concluded, as if expecting more of the Vivaldi.  Dr. Sparger elicited applause with mildly exaggerated body language, before giving his own welcome speech.  He then asked for a show of hands of first-time visitors to the 560, where the response was ~1/3 of the audience.  

The chorus alone then sang the next selection, Fresno-based composer Kevin Memley’s setting of the Marian anthem “O Magnum Mysterium”.  Bells and flute joined the chorus for the Bohemian carol “The Angels and the Shepherds” by Stephen Paulus (1949-2014).  The orchestra then joined in more fully for “Mary’s Lullaby” by the British composer John Rutter (born 1945) and “Love Came Down at Christmas” by the Mizzou-educated, Cincinnati-resident composer Howard Helvey (born 1968).  For this listener, the most interesting of this set was the Paulus, for its offbeat instrumentation judiciously used alongside the chorus.

Dr. Sparger then ceded the podium to former KFUO 99.1 general manager Ron Klemm for the evening’s first audience sing-along, “The First Nowell”.  In a somewhat OTT manner, Mr. Klemm warmed up the audience for the evening’s on-deck guest soloist, and also gave the audience instructions (successfully followed) to sing the first and last verses, but also for the ladies only to sing the second verse and the gentlemen only to sing the third verse.  The Bach Society chorus sang “backup” through all 4 verses, so some other-gender “ringers” featured in the middle two choruses.

The next work was the concert’s centerpiece and highlight, ironic for not requiring the chorus or the full orchestra.  This was the “Gloria” by Handel, which went missing for almost three centuries until its rediscovery in London and attribution to Handel in 2001.  In 2002, the Bach Society gave the regional premiere of Handel’s “Gloria”, so it was fitting for them to revisit it here.  The Chicagoland-based Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg was the guest solo soprano, and charmingly introduced the work, with a wry mid-speech quip that “this is not a sing-along”.  It certainly isn’t, as Ms. Stoppelenburg very ably demonstrated.  Her soprano has a certain chocolatey dark tone, and her body language is also quite expressive as she swayed to the rhythms.  The Handel and Ms. Stoppelenburg won the evening’s biggest applause, and rightly so, in the concert’s most rewarding selection for at least this writer.

Bach Society assistant conductor Stephen Eros then conducted the next audience sing-along, “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”, and the next four carols with the orchestra and chorus:  “Fum, Fum, Fum” (from Catalonia), “Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head” (from Appalachia), John Rutter’s “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol”, and the “Sussex Carol”.  “Fum, Fum, Fum” featured the wittiest arrangement of the evening, with the piccolo juxtaposed with pizzicato strings.  

Dr. Sparger conducted the remainder of the concert, and Ms. Stoppelenburg returned as soloist, tablet in hand, one more time for Ruth Watson Henderson’s “Lullaby for the Christ Child”.  Here, though, the chorus and orchestra drowned out Ms. Stoppelenburg several times.  Two traditional carols followed, “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” and “I Wonder As I Wander”.  The final selection on the printed program switched gears totally, a Latin-percussion infused arrangement of the Burgundian carol “Pat-a-Pan” (sung in English), with a touch of Brazilian Carnaval samba via a referee whistle alongside the timbales, and where the chorus did their own version of stage-swaying.  The encore was “Silent Night”, with the hall again darkened, the battery-powered candles on, and the chorus recessing from the stage into the aisles.  The chorus sang the first verse in the original German, and the audience joined the subsequent chorus, in English of course, at Dr. Sparger’s invitation.

This was this writer’s first-ever experience of the Bach Society’s Candlelight Concert.  A certain element of “getting on with it” was notable in the brisk succession of the carol sets, with the total concert clocking in at 90 minutes.  It’s very understandable why this concert has been a St. Louis tradition for over 70 years, with solid music-making and a notable community feel.  Time will tell where the concert happens next December.