Townsville Civic Theatre
July 5, 2015

Few composers command the same universal adoration as J.S. Bach, but such a ubiquitous figure, regardless of the brilliance of his music, risks becoming hackneyed if the same trite favourites are trotted out again and again. This issue was skilfully navigated by AFCM Artistic Director Piers Lane during the festival’s marathon evening of music dedicated to the baroque master, which instead aimed to shine a light on those works from the composer’s vast output that languish in the shadows. Across two programmes, both to full houses at the Townsville Civic Theatre, we were treated to some of Bach’s (and in one instance his descendent’s) less well-travelled works, with a mixture of contemporary delivery, period authenticity, and experimental reimaginings on offer. Crowning each concert Festival headliner Piotr Anderszewski, a pianist celebrated for his meticulous and astonishingly polished realisations of Bach, brought us back to more familiar territory with performances of two of J.S’s most accomplished and demanding keyboard works.

Opening the first Bach by Candlelight programme, one of the handful of secular Cantatas, from a catalogue of over 200 written by Bach, Non sa che sia dolore, (He knows not what sorrow is) BWV...