It was an evening of outstanding music-making, marking the debut of the ensemble at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, leaving me with the unenviable task of translating this sublime experience into words. The concert was one of the best in programming and performance by the BAA that I have attended, warmly endorsed by the audience.
The program for this concert was neatly arranged to show the influence on Bach of a musical tradition that extended into the early Baroque and to places Bach never himself saw – beyond the Germanic states. The deep reverence Bach paid to his musical ancestors is well known. The Bach Akademie did well in showing that that reverence was not in vain, and in contextualising a genius often presented to modern audiences as though it emerged from a vacuum.
