San Diego does not offer many architectural time machines – buildings where with eyes half shut you can imagine yourself back into an earlier era. But one such is the long narrow Founders Chapel at the University of San Diego with its high ornate ceiling, dark mahogany benches and inset seats along the nave walls, and huge embellished altar with polychrome statues in gilt reredos. Aesthetically and acoustically it was an ideal setting for a concert of J.S. Bach cantatas performed by the excellent Bach Collegium San Diego.

Under the Collegium’s Music Director Ruben Valenzuela, a perfect subdued and exquisite sound was elicited from the supple small chorus of eight voices and the players of period instruments with their pure and softened timbres. Those instruments, indeed, received nearly as much individual billing in the program as the musicians themselves. We learned that Pierre Joubert (an English artist with impeccable international performance and scholarly credentials in Baroque music, who is credited as Bach Collegium’s Leader) played upon a London violin built by John Edward Betts in 1790. The rest of the instruments (recorders, oboe, violas da gamba, violone, lute, and organs) were all of authentic older designs but recenter construction. (The curious reader may discover further details from the outstanding and thorough program notes which can be accessed at the end of this article.)

Much musical filigree but little in the way of Baroque flash or thunder featured in this program. An appropriate submissive and reverential Lenten ambiance prevailed in the selections. That mood was initiated with the cantata "Der Friede sei mit dir" (BWV 158, thought to be remnants of a larger lost work), which featured expressive bass Lorant Najbauer (with his suitably monkish hairstyle) and Joubert’s instrumental obbligato – the graceful singing blended as duet with the floating florid violin part. During the complexly interweaving Aria and Chorale section ("Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde"), the soloists and most of the chorus and instruments were placed in forward positions. But, in a brilliant stroke of musical stagecraft, the two sopranos (Anne-Marie Dicce and Elisabeth Marti) and the oboe (played by Marianne Pfau) were positioned much further back, almost out of sight. Consequently, when their parts (the chorale of a traditional chorale-prelude) entered as a contrasting trio rising above the rest of the music, the slightly startling effect was of ghostly voices materializing from no obvious direction. The final chorale (a satisfying formal ending to so many of Bach’s religious works), "Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm," is set to a verse from Martin Luther’s hymn "Christ lag in Todesbanden," and contains the delightful line referring to the Easter lamb as "In heisser Lieb gebraten" – "roasted in hot love."

A varied interlude of three early short organ works, from the Kirnberger Collection (Chorale Preludes V) written in Weimar when Bach was 23 (Bach the boy wonder!), were deftly played by Martin Green on the chapel’s eight rank, single manual Martin Ott pipe organ. (Other works in the concert were accompanied by either Green or Valenzuela on a little chamber or continuo organ built by Curtis Berak in 2003.) The first of these plums, thematically linked to the previous cantata by the Luther chorale, was the "Fantasia super ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden.’" (BWV 695), followed by two contrasting treatments of "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten," (BWV 690 and 691), one simple and tranquil, the other flowery and contrapuntal.

Next came "Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden" (BWV 230) on a text from the 117^th Psalm, subtitled "Motet for an unspecified occasion" – not meaning an all-purpose motet, but one of those imposed vague labels, like "Man in a Cocked Hat" or "Portrait of a Lady," signaling some scholarly uncertainty . The learned fret that this may not be an authentic Bach work; but, if not, it is surely a very good imitation of one. The full chorus (of eight) sang two to a part, each of those duo sections blending especially well (particularly the alto combination of Katrin Nogols Genzlinger and countertenor Richard Dawes), accompanied by Dirk Freymuth on the gallichon (lute), Shanon Zusman on violone (bass viol), and Green on the continuo organ, all creating a gentle, precise, transparent, and joyful sound. A slower contrasting segment grew in emotional intensity, leading to a blissful concluding "Alleluia."

The concert concluded with the varied and extensive cantata "Gottes Zeit is die allerbeste Zeit," sometimes called "Actus Tragicus," which Bach also composed as a young man, while employed in Mühlhausen, possibly for the funeral of his Uncle Toby. Accompanied again by Green on chamber organ and Freymuth on lute, Denise Briese and Shanon Zusman playing violas da gamba, and recorders played by Claire Rottembourg and Pfau (particularly sweet in combination), the cantata gives the vocalists prominent solos. Scott Whitaker sang "Ach, Herr, lehre uns bedenken" and the arioso part of the chorale "Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradies sein" in a tenor voice that lay well throughout his range. Phil Simon sang "Bestelle dein Haus" in a pleasant light baritone. Katrin Genzlinger performed the alto aria "In deine Hände" well with restrained animation. And Anne-Marie Dicce, a lovely soprano with the profile of a quattrocento principessa, was set off beautifully against the chorus in the three part Coro-Arioso-Choral "Es ist der alte Bund." The ending Chorale-Chorus was especially satisfying, balanced between very attractive choral and instrumental sections and finishing with a quick, vigorous, florid finale and "Amen."

In fine, the contemplative beauty of Bach’s music, the suitability of the chapel setting, the simplicity and gentleness of the presentation with fine voices, pure and clean, and the softness of the accompanying period instruments made this a hugely enjoyable and memorable concert.

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