Visions of Utopia

The auditory brilliance of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco is the setting for an in-the-round, “surround-sound” concert to be performed by the San Francisco Bach Choir—a stunning conclusion to an entire season devoted to music for multiple choirs by Renaissance and Baroque masters. The program includes ethereal 24-part, 36-part and 40-part works from Renaissance composers Josquin des Pres, Johannes Ockeghem and Thomas Tallis, a Roman Baroque Mass for three choirs and colossal polychoral gems from the early North-German Baroque.

This unique repertoire was written over the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries by composers inspired by the exciting acoustical properties of the new resonant cathedrals that were being built throughout Europe. It grew in its sophistication and variety as composers wrote for all sizes of vocal and instrumental ensembles performing amid the echoing stone walls. The style reached its peak with massive works involving huge musical forces during the “golden age of the colossal baroque” in the early seventeenth century.

Under the eighteen-year leadership of Artistic Director, David P. Babbitt, the San Francisco Bach Choir has explored the musical traditions of Bach and has brought to performance many rare works for multiple choirs from a host of vital early North-German Baroque composers. In their season finale concert—joined by soprano soloist Jennifer Ellis and an orchestra of early instruments--the 90-voice Bach Choir will follow the development of this first form of stereophonic sound, and will surround and enchant audiences with music that is still fresh and beautiful in the late twentieth century.