Bach to the Future

Despite its namesake, Columbia University's Bach Society is hardly content with just performing music from the past. "It's my mission to bring the old and the new together," says music director and conductor David Rosenmeyer. "When we are performing ... we want to have an impact on the listener now. We want to speak directly and spontaneously [to the listener]."

The Bach Society's upcoming concerto and spring concerts are but two examples of the group's blend of the old and new. The Concerto Concert, while featuring two works rooted in the traditional realm of classical music, will be held at Broadway Presbyterian Church, a new location. The Spring Concert, including the premiere of a work written by Joe Rubinstein, CC '08, will happen on campus at St. Paul's Chapel.

This year, the concerto competition was won by oboist Caroline Robertson, CC '09, and bassoonist Sasha Enegren, a candidate for the Professional Studies diploma at Mannes College The New School of Music.

"The goal of the concerto competition is to provide young musicians with the opportunity to play with an orchestra," explained Rosenmeyer. "Most college-level musicians will be lucky to get job as an orchestra musician, and even a smaller number makes it as soloists." Because of the competition in the professional world, Rosenmeyer sees this opportunity as a "treat" for both soloist and orchestra. "We take the idea of chamber music and apply it our orchestra," he said.

The competition is open to all members of the Columbia University community and the Bach Society, some of whom attend Mannes College The New School for Music, the Manhattan School of Music, or the Juilliard School. Although the notion of having a soloist not directly affiliated with the Columbia University community perform is sometimes a "delicate subject," Rosenmeyer believes that "if somebody gives his free time to play with us and be at all the rehearsals, he is automatically part of Bach Society, and should be able to participate."

This Saturday's program features Enegren performing Mozart's Bassoon Concerto and Robertson performing Strauss' Oboe Concerto.

"You often think of the bassoon providing comic relief," said Rosenmeyer. "But in the Mozart Bassoon Concerto, the second movement ... is beautiful."

Enegren agreed. "There is great innocence in this piece," she said. "The portrayal of that requires elegance and ease while maintaining complete control of the instrument."

Strauss' Oboe Concerto shares many of these qualities. Composed when Strauss was 80 years old, this piece returns to the neoclassicism that he had abandoned earlier in his life. After having "challenged the limits of tonality," Rosenmeyer sees Strauss "making a model of Mozart" in terms of structure and style.

"This concerto was composed in October of 1945, where the world around him was completely destroyed," Rosenmeyer added. "It was humanity's darkest hour, and this composer writes something that is out of this world."

In the oboe repertoire, Robertson said, the concerto "is one of the few comprehensive pieces."

"It's also fun to see what the oboe can do. I think it covers every note that the oboe can play," Robertson added. She thinks that the audience will easily be able to identify with Strauss' piece. "The second movement has a heart-breaking, evocative tune. It's something that people will be able to relate to. There is a lot of cross talk [between the instruments], and it's fun for the audience to see the music go back and forth."

This sense of creative exchange seems to be ever-present with the Bach Society, and extends beyond its concerts to permeate every aspect of the group's music-making.

Copresident Leah Sandals, CC '07, said that Rosenmeyer "has an unconventional conducting style, and often experiments with different techniques."

"He makes exciting musical adventures out of every moment," added Enegren.

"It's a collaborative process," said Rosenmeyer of how each performance comes together. "Everyone is important ... everyone is together in spirit. We work with ideas, images, and history. We try to find an interpretation. We work on finding what a certain passage or movement means, and what it expresses."

On April 21, one such project will be brought to fruition in the spring concert, which will feature Joe Rubinstein's Tremors: A Report, paired with Mendelssohn's Psalm 95. Based on a poem depicting the aftermath of an earthquake and incorporating elements of spoken word, Rubinstein's piece was written in response to Hurricane Katrina.

"It's a very thoughtful piece. Everyone's really impressed," said Sandals. "It's a combination of language and texture ... you really feel the earthquake under your feet," added Rosenmeyer.

As the academic year draws to a close, Rosenmeyer is already planning ahead for the next concert season. "I hope to do an opera again," he said. But for now, audiences can look forward to catching a glimpse of the group's infectious enthusiasm at its concerts this month. They can even experience it for themselves, and be blown away by it altogether.