Elaine Scott Banks is breathing easier this year. After an incredibly successful and risky 1987-88 season for the City Musick, which included Chicago’s first period-instrument opera to be presented in an aquarium, things are settling down for the group’s upcoming fourth season, which opens Friday.
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This weekend’s two concerts feature an all-Bach program: the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, the Trauer Ode, BWV 198, and the Missa Brevis in F, BWV 233. Soloists include Mary Springfels on viola da gamba, soprano Julianne Baird, countertenor Christopher Trueblood, tenor Mark Bleeke, and baritone Andrew Schultze.
The Trauer Ode was written, Banks adds, “after the death of the Queen of Poland, who had gone off to live by herself when her husband became King of Poland and converted to Catholicism, renouncing Protestantism. She was a heavy-duty Protestant, so that didnt go over too well with her. She became a cult figure and ‘defender of the faith’ in Germany, and when she died it was a very big deal–six months of mourning.
The City Musick has devised some very flexible subscription plans–subscribers can choose three, four, five, or all of its eight concerts, and they need not be limited to one or the other performance space. “That way,” Banks says, “people can try both halls, and try what it feels and sounds like in both spaces.”
