Music / Weddings & Parties Over Coffee, Bach Akademie Australia. At Wesley Uniting Church, 11 August. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

We have not heard Bach Akademie Australia in Canberra since their memorable presentation of all six of J S Bach’s Brandeburg Concertos at the Canberra International Music Festival in 2024.

As the name of the ensemble suggests they focus on the music of the Baroque and especially that of Johann Sebastian Bach (and his family).

This concert was built around two of Bach’s secular cantatas, BWV 202, the Wedding Cantata for solo soprano and BWV211, the Coffee Cantata, for soprano, bass and tenor. The singers were father and daughter Christopher and Miriam Allan and tenor Dan Walker.

The group was founded and is directed by violinist Madeleine Easton, but an arm injury has meant stepping aside for short tour, with second violinist Simone Slattery stepping up with the second violin position taken up at short notice by a recent arrival in Sydney from Perth, whose name I did not catch.

The two violinists were joined by Canberra violist John Ma, harpsichordist Nathan Cox, cellist Anthea Cottee, bassist Pippa MacMillan, flautist Mikaela Oberg and oboist Adm Masters. This is an ensemble devoted to historically accurate performance, with period correct stringing, appropriate bows and keyless woodwinds. It gives a different tonal complexity to the music and shifts the balance between the instruments. Especially interesting was MacMillan’s bass viol using tied on gut frets and what looked like a very old instrument.

The concert opened with the Wedding Cantata, with the strings and oboe accompanying Miriam Allan. At times Allan was a little dominated by the oboe where it featured, but there is much variation in the scoring over the nine sections that it mattered little.

This was followed by a sinfonia by J S Bach’s oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a two movement Adagio and Fugue in D minor. The Adagio used the oboe and flute while the more sprightly Fugue was left to the strings alone. The cello and bass were very busy, playing tightly synchronised lines with the harpsichord rattling away holding the whole thing together behind some very active violin and viola parts. A most interesting piece of music.

The singers returned for two arias from one of Bach’s sacred cantatas, BWV 57 featuring the confident voices of both Allans. The orchestra returned after the break with the Overture from Bach’s Orchestra Suite No 2, BWV 1067 as a lead into the Coffee Cantata.

This was performed with an entertaining dash of theatricality, as the text is essentially a dialogue between a father and daughter about the choice between coffee or a husband for the daughter. Dan Walker’s role was as a narrator which topped and tailed the conversation between the two sitting at a café table with coffee and newspapers before a final trio chorus to finish. It was done with just enough theatre to entertain without distracting from the music. The Allans and Walker brought out the humour of the text without compromising the musicality of their work.

This was a most satisfying concert, enthusiastically performed with tight, flawless playing all round. We can only hope that the Bach Akademie Australia will include Canberra on future tours. A full Wesley Uniting Church on a cold winter Tuesday night would suggest there is an audience here for their music.

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