In another universe long ago and far away — well, actually when I was a student back east in college — I heard J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 played live for the first time in my life. I lived in those days in a triple-decker apartment building, and, miraculously, from among the students living in its three apartments you could find enough competent musicians (myself not among them) to gather around the harpsichord on the second floor and turn out an adequate version of Bach.
I was enthralled. This was Bach’s music like it was meant to be played, among friends, in a living room, with good will and good cheer all around.
And it was those living room concerts that came to mind as I listened to the Oregon Mozart Players perform Bach’s Brandenburg No. 1 tonight in their annual Candlelight Baroque concert at Eugene’s First Christian Church. The acoustics aren’t perfect, and there might have been a ragged passage or two, but there is nothing quite like the musical intimacy of a concert played in such a space, among friends.
OMP music director Kelly Kuo opened the evening with a pair of pieces he conducted from the keyboard of the harpsichord, Alessandro Scarlatti’s Concerto Grosso No. 3 in F major and then Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D Minor.
The concerto presented special problems that Kuo described in a brief talk to the audience: Balancing the light sound of a harpsichord with a chamber orchestra of modern stringed instruments before an audience in a large hall would be a challenge, he admitted. And, indeed, Kuo’s intricate keyboard work was sometimes lost even from where I sat in the front row, just about 10 feet from the harpsichord. No matter, though, as the overall piece was full and satisfying.
In the second half, Kuo conducted from the podium as the orchestra performed George Frideric Handel’s “Overture to Samson” and, yes, that Brandenburg. The “Samson” struck me as a little plodding in places, but the Brandenburg was just plain fun — and, yes, the candles, the rainy night outside, the friends inside, and the holiday season all contributed to the smile on my face.
OMP is doing the show again Saturday night. Go see it to enjoy a Jingle Bells-free evening of holiday cheer. Tickets at OregonMozartPlayers.org.