"SARASA concert comforting without being conventional"

by Ellen Pfeifer

Boston Globe, November 5, 2001

Who better to serve as a spiritual guide during these troubled times than J.S.Bach? SARASA, the period instrument chamber music ensemble, presented a wonderful Bach meditation on turbulence and consolation in its season opener Saturday night. Set in the decoratively spartan but acoustically opulent Friends' Meeting House in Cambridge, the concert brought together that most eloquent of singers, Sanford Sylvan, sparkling harpsichordist Maggie Cole, and an ensemble of crackerjack string and wind players. The music was a careful arrangement of movements from instrumental works and cantatas, with complete performances of the harpsichord Concerto in F minor and Catata 82, "Ich habe genug" ("It is enough").

Among the highlights of the concert was the gravely beautiful intertwining of violins (Brian Brooks and Claire Jolivet) set against sympathetic harpsichord underpinnings in the Cantabile from G major Violin Sonata No. 6 (BMV 1019). Although it was perhaps not strictly canonical, the players had extracted from the florid harpsichord part the lines taken by the second violin - turning what was a solo sonata into a duo work. It sounded terrific - perhaps Bach in a different life, or just on a different occasion, might have done the same thing himself. Later, Brooks got a truly solo opportunity in an Andante from the B minor Sonata BMV 1014. In the Sinfonia from Cantatas 21 and 12, the ensemble presented striking contrasts between the mellow strings and the penetrating oboe of Richard Earle.

Certainly the emotional heart of the evening came in Sylvan's performance of the aria "Hier in meine Vaters Statte" from Cantatas 32 and the complete "Ich habe genug." Both works depict the release of the troubled soul and offer the hope of consolation in God1s dominion. In the intimate confines of the meetinghouse, Sylvan's voice offered passionate and sonorous comfort. Cantata 82 evokes the elderly Simeon's sense of fulfilment at seeing the infant Christ. "It is enough" for him, and he is eager to depart the distress of the world for the Lord's dwelling.

No one colors text the way Sylvan does. On a word like "hope," the baratone made it sound as if he were panting in expectation. "Joy" was floridly ornamented, and "slumber" was drawn out expansively to suggest perfect repose.