The enduring message of Easter reflected in two sacred Baroque works at Second Pres

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 The glory of brass instruments fits well into an expansive definition of Eastertide, so Indianapolis


Baroque Orchestra and the Second Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir joined forces Sunday afternoon for "O Radiant Dawn," a program of sacred music by J.S. Bach and Jan Dismas Zelenka.

Three trumpets for Bach, four for Zelenka helped make sure there would be plenty of splendor in movements of both works where glory was being proclaimed. Michelle Louer, director of music and fine arts at Second Presbyterian, conducted the concert in the church's spacious sanctuary, which is acoustically sumptuous as well.

The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra revealed its historically informed performing acumen with Ingrid Matthews, a professor at Indiana University, as guest concertmaster. The spotlight turned on her to fine effect in the alto aria "Benedictus" of Zelenka's "Missa Paschalis," which revealed soprano soloist Madeline Apple Healey at her best level of the concert. Firmly sustained phrasing was beautifully matched in this violin-and-voice partnership. The first instrumental soloist among several others of unfailing aplomb was flutist Leighann Daihl Ragusa in the Sinfonia of Bach's "Easter Oratorio." 

Baroque trumpets in rehearsal for May 3 concert

Zelenka was a Czech composer whose life span overlaps Bach's somewhat and had similar experience in the court at Dresden. He flourished with a more modest gift than the Saxon master, displaying a kind of expressive straightforwardness and the gift of flowing craftsmanship rather reminiscent of Bach's great German contemporary, Georg Philipp Telemann. 

The other vocal soloists were also well displayed, particularly in Bach's "Easter Oratorio." Inspired recitatives, sometimes shared among soloists, reminded me of the vivid division of soloist lines in a work with much more of a narrative thrust, the "St. Matthew Passion." After tenor Blake Beckmeyer and bass Jason Steigerwalt smoothly shared the first "Easter Oratorio" aria, the four soloists divided duties in a recitative scolding believers for insufficient attention to the Resurrection, starting with alto Mitzi Westra: "O cold hearts of men!" (translated line), she began in remonstration.

Westra was later magnificent in the pleading aria "Tell me, tell me quickly say where I can find Jesus," lifted into melismatic heights on the word "Seele" (soul), and also held on notes of high appeal by an oboe soloist. The extreme slowing of tempo in a line declaring the speaker's heart without Jesus to be "completely orphaned and wretched" was adroitly handled before the bass proclaims the emotional turnaround crowned in this performance by a strong, unified chorus of praise to end the work.

The tenor soloist reached heights of his own in an aria with recorder accompaniment, in which Bach's tone-painting on "Schlummer" (slumber) crucially conveys the belief that our fleshly death is merely a sleep that Christ redeems. Beckmeyer's diction and expressive heft were first-rate.

The choir is more central to the structure of the Zelenka mass setting. Louer shaped carefully the section of the Credo where the incarnation mystery requires three soloists' soft singing, immediately yielding to a choral episode of fear recounting Jesus' burial. 

With the choral voices exulting, the trumpets understandably came to the fore with "Et resurrexit," and the mood of celebration was absolute. The Credo ends with a repeat of the Amen chorus that also concludes the Gloria, both starring the trumpets and showing Zelenka at the height of his contrapuntal powers. Radiance carried the day in both works. 






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