Concert teaches a magnificent music lesson

July 8, 2008
Marilyn Farwell

The OBF Chorus delivered a meticulous Haydn mass.

Intentional or not, Helmuth Rilling’s juxtaposition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat” and Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Heiligmesse” in Sunday’s Oregon Bach Festival program provided a wonderful lesson in the difference between Baroque and classical musical idioms.

Dynamic contrasts were hallmarks of this performance. Rilling demands rigorous phrasing and articulation from the orchestra and exact pronunciation and nuanced textual meaning from the chorus. Both orchestra and chorus followed his cues and sounded splendid.

If this concert happened to be a music lesson, it was a magnificent one.

Read the entire review in The Register-Guard.