Bach the Innovator
Johann Sebastian Bach is undisputed as a towering figure in the history of music, but in his own lifetime, many of his contemporaries viewed him as a master of a bygone era – an “old fogey” – and immediately after his death his works began to slip into obscurity, to be forgotten for nearly a century. Today, while most scholars recognize him as the composer who brought the Baroque style to its highest pinnacle of development, many listeners think of his music as beautiful but a bit off-putting: arcane, intellectual, and deeply conservative. The performers on this year’s Chamber Music by Candlelight series hope to convince you that old Sebastian was in fact a brilliant innovator, whose daring explorations of form and harmony are still exciting, even shocking, to modern ears. Come listen for yourself, and let us know what you think!
Next Event
November 11-15, 2010: Ingrid Matthews, violin, and Byron Schenkman, harpsichord
Co-founders of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the award-winning chamber ensemble La Luna, Ingrid Matthews (Bodky Laureate 1989) and Byron Schenkman (Bodky Laureate 1999) have performed all over the world and on numerous highly-acclaimed recordings of 17th and 18th century music. Their playing, both separately and together, has been lauded as “exuberant,” “alluring,” “phenomenal” and “astonishing.”