The 2018 Idaho Bach Festival will provide an opportunity for all of Moscow to hear and see how music was performed in the 18th century.
The University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music is partnering with the Auditorium Chamber Music Series and the Festival Dance Academy and Performing Arts Association to bring the London Handel Players to campus 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Administration Building Auditorium.
Tickets cost $10 for students, $20 for seniors and $25 for general admission — available online, at BookPeople of Moscow or at the door.
The London Handel Players perform music composed during Bach’s time — the Baroque period — said Christopher Pfund, a UI voice professor.
Pfund said the ensemble performs using period instruments — traditional instruments of the 18th century — to do what he refers to as “historically informed performing.”
“They’re trying to play the music in a very traditional way,” Pfund said. “The way it would’ve been played in the time.”
In addition to their musical performance, he said the London Handel Players will bring Baroque dancers to perform alongside the ensemble.
Pfund said having the London Handel Players on campus gives students and the community an opportunity to go back in time.
For genres such as jazz, there are recordings of the music when it was first created. With classical music, however, the best way to experience it is live, he said.
“This is a very rare kind of concert with world-class players and world-class dancers,” Pfund said.
The London Handel Players’ performance is one of five events during the Idaho Bach Festival. Other events include a Palouse Brass Ensemble concert, a faculty performance, an informal student concert and a masterclass with the London Handel Players.
Miranda Wilson, a UI professor of cello, bass and theory, said the festival is a celebration involving the entire music community of Bach and all 18th century music.
Wilson said Bach is an appropriate musician to celebrate because he is well-known and has a universal appeal.
Pfund said Bach’s music is accessible to most every audience — in part because the elements of Bach’s music, such as tension and resolution, can be heard in almost all music today.
“The music of Bach is one of those cornerstones on which our western tradition of music is built,” he said. “Most music appeals to a narrow range of people, but this music is not that.”
Both Pfund and Wilson said they are looking forward to the free, informal student performance noon Oct. 26 in the Idaho Commons.
Wilson said the performance will feature multiple instruments, including the saxophone and marimba, which were not around during Bach’s time.
“Bach’s music is a little bit of a different form of music than others, in that you can perform it on different instruments than the ones for which it was written,” Wilson said. “That’s really exciting for our students, because a lot of them play instruments that don’t have a lot of repertoire written for them by the top composers. But Bach music works for everything.”
Wilson said the Bach Festival provides an accessible introduction to the music of Bach’s time. She said many people are shy and hesitant to attend classical music concerts because they are unsure of the etiquette, but said she wants people to know music is for everyone.
“You can wear whatever you want, sit wherever you want, and clap whenever you want,” Wilson said. “I hope that people will come along with open eyes and open ears and open hearts to enjoy some of this music.”
Jordan Willson can be reached at [email protected]
2018 Idaho Bach Festival
An Evening of Baroque Brass with the Palouse Brass Ensemble — 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Administration Building Auditorium
London Handel Players Masterclasses — 2:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Lionel Hampton School of Music
London Handel Players Concert — 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Administration Building Auditorium
Faculty Solo and Ensembles Concert — 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Haddock Performance Hall
Bach in the Round: University of Idaho Student Concert — 12 p.m. Oct. 26, Idaho Commons Rotunda