Great Barrington — If you have not been getting enough joy lately—and who has?—the remedy may be as simple as attending one of the Berkshire Bach Society’s (BBS’)popular Bach at New Year’s concerts, December 30 at the Academy of Music in Northampton, December 31 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, or January 1 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The Society’s New Year’s shows have been a tradition since 1993, when the group first started giving annual marathon performances of J.S. Bach’s six “Brandenburg” Concertos.
This year’s event is dedicated in memoriam to Adrian van Zon, BBS’ longtime chairman and a driving force behind making the concert series an annual tradition.
Make no mistake: Performing with the Berkshire Bach Ensemble under Eugene Drucker’s direction is a prestigious gig, which helps explain the Society’s ability to attract top talent from all points of the compass.
The Berkshire Bach Society will again feature harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss as its keyboard continuist for Bach at New Year’s, marking his seventh appearance with the series. Weiss, who teaches at the Paris Conservatoire, will also perform as soloist in Bach’s virtuosic “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 5 and is traveling from Paris specifically for the events.
This season also welcomes back oboist Margaret Owens, a specialist in Baroque performance, along with violinists Michael Roth and Emily Daggett Smith after a year spent on other projects. Roth appears in multiple roles, including solo violino piccolo in “Brandenburg” No. 1 and third viola in No. 3, while Smith, a member of the Vega Quartet, joins Owens as two of the four soloists in No. 2.
The ensemble also includes oboist Jessica Warren, trumpeter Sycil Mathai, and cellist Alistair MacRae, who travel from across the country to take part. Joining them from the New York metropolitan area are violinist Laura Lutzke, recently in Bremen, Germany; violist Liuh-Wen Ting of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; cellist Roberta Cooper; flutist Judith Mendenhall; horn player Karl Kramer-Johansen; and double bassist Peter Weitzner.
Additional musicians include flutist Alison Hale, violist Ronald Gorevic, cellist Ronald Feldman, violinist Brunilda Myftaraj, and oboist Charles Huang, who travel from southern Vermont, the Pioneer Valley, the Berkshires, and central Connecticut. They are joined by newcomers Christopher Chung on bassoon and Eric Davis on horn, both arriving from New York City.
Artistic Director Eugene Drucker is a violinist, composer, and writer, best known as a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet. An acclaimed soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in North America, Europe, and Israel. A graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School, he is a nine-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Gramophone Award recipient. Drucker has recorded major works by Bach and Bartók and composed music inspired by Shakespeare and contemporary poetry. He is a visiting professor at Stony Brook University and the author of two novels, “The Savior” and “Yearning.”
In difficult times, when joy is hard to come by and peace on Earth elusive, nothing elevates the human spirit quite like the music of J.S. Bach. And nobody knows this better than Eugene Drucker:
Far from the madding crowds waiting for fireworks in cities around the world, I can think of no better way to welcome the new year than to share the inspirations of great composers whose imagined sound-worlds and the emotions they stir sometimes take us beyond the realm of music. … We look especially to J.S. Bach not only for entertainment and enjoyment, but also for spiritual renewal. Even to those of us who are not religious, Bach offers deep nourishment for the soul.
You can hear the Berkshire Bach Ensemble perform J.S. Bach’s six “Brandenburg” Concertos at one of the following venues:
December 30, 7 p.m.
Academy of Music, Northampton
Tickets: 413-584-9032 or boxoffice@aomtheatre.com
Box Office Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 3 to 6 p.m.
December 31, 6 p.m.
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington
Tickets: 413-528-0100 or boxoffice@mahaiwe.org
Box Office Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.
January 1, 3 p.m.
Co-presented with WMHT
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, N.Y.
Tickets: 518-273-0038 or tickets.troymusichall.org
Box Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The program lasts about two and a half hours and has one intermission.
