If the late Carl Crosier would have come to the concert I went to tonight, he might have described it as “four German chocolate cakes and two triple fudge sundaes!”—all in one sitting!

That is because the program was called “A Celebration of J. S. Bach,” and consisted of four Bach motets and two cello suites—such a rich, perhaps overly rich program.

Now, Carl conducted all six Bach motets, but he sure didn’t program four of them on a single concert! I would have to say that the musicians tonight really did a “tour de force”—so many notes!!

The concert was held at St. Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square, the very same place where years ago we attended Advent Lessons and Carols here and we heard a woman shout out on hearing the Annunciation Gospel: “And Mary pondered in her heart how this could be.” Because you’re gonna get laid … by the Holy Spirit!”

Tonight’s program was sung by the St. Martin’s Voices, with Ben Giddens (organ), Adrian Bradbury (cello) and Andrew Earis (conductor). The St. Martin’s Voices is primarily made up of talented past and present Choral scholars who come together to sing concert and special events at the church. To my old eyes, they all looked like students.

The eight singers this evening were participants in the St. Martin’s Voices Fellowship Scheme 2018. Now in its second year, the Fellowship is the newest development of the Choral music program at St Martin-in-the-Fields, providing high level training with leading Choral directors and vocal coaches.

Wow, what a lot of notes those singers had to sing tonight! The four motets were: Loben den Herrn, alle Heide (BWV 230); Jesu meine Freude (BWV 227); and in spite of it being Lent, Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf (BWV 226) and Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (BWV 225)—these last two motets contain Alleluias!

In Singet, there were ten singers, each singing one on a part since this is composed for double choir. I remember Carl saying that this was *the* hardest piece of music he ever taught the Lutheran Church of Honolulu choir! And to hear it sung one on a part by these young singers was truly admirable.

I will be accompanying this work with the Oahu Choral Society on April 26th so as soon as I get home, I’ve got to start practicing!

The only thing I thought strange was that only the organ accompanied the choir instead of adding the cello to the continuo—he was sitting right there in between playing the two Bach cello suites. I must say that I’ve never seen a cellist put so much energy and “body English” into a Bach performance—he truly looked like he was going to explode! Joan Ishibashi said she was expecting him to be ejected into outer space with all is energetic body movements! He certainly played well, though.

The cellist played the Suite No. 1, BWV 1007, in its entirety. The last time I heard the famous first movement was played so beautifully by Karen Fujimoto at Carl Crosier’s funeral. That movement was also played at my mother’s graveside.

It was good to hear Bach tonight.