Gerard Gillen rightly described last Sunday night's concert at St Michael's Church Dun Laoghaire as special and unusual. The occasion marked both the end of this year's concert series and the retirement of Professor Gillen as artistic director, a post he has held since these concerts began in 1974. The concert consisted of 20 songs from Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesangbuch, divided by the movements of the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWV564.
The Musicalisches Gesangbuch was published in 1736. It contains 954 sacred songs - mainly chorales and simple arias - designed primarily for domestic performance, and to encourage the exercise of piety. Bach provided accompaniments for 69 of the songs, plus a handful of original melodies.
With music which is so driven by the words, it was a pity that not all the texts were translated into English, and that the German originals did not appear at all. However, Emmanuel Lawler was often very good at capturing that Lutheran mix of penitence and hope, albeit through pitching which sometimes went a little flat. And it was fascinating to hear Bach's subtle elaborations of such simple melodies.
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