Baroque Music Festival at Downtown's St. Paul's Chapel

Baroque master J.S. Bach's music will be celebrated at the 4x4 Festival, to be held at St. Paul's Chapel this month.

The sounds of Baroque music will fill St. Paul's Chapel at 209 Broadway for four days, beginning on Sept.11. The 4x4 Festival, whose name derives from their four hour-long programs each with a different theme, is offering orchestral suites on Sept. 11, chamber music on Sept. 12, chamber music from 18th-century France on Sept 13 and cantatas on Sept 14.

Although the festival's program always includes neglected composers from that era—this year, for example, there is a suite by Johan Friedrich Fasch, whose music bridged the gap between Germany's baroque and early classical period, and sonatas by Jan Dismas Zelenka, known for his harmonic and contrapuntal intracacies—the real star of these concert series is always J.S. Bach. This year, listeners will be treated to his Suite No. 4 in D Major, the Sonata for violin and continuo in G Major and, on the festival's last day, two of his cantatas. That is just fine with most of the festival devotees who revere the Baroque master.

"Bach is the ultimate teacher of anything and everything that has to do with keyboard music and performance," noted Antonio Fermin, a pianist and founder of The Piano Studio [1] in Tribeca. "We still have so much to learn from him."

Program Schedule
 
Thursday, September 11, 7 p.m. – The Grand Overture
Suite No. 4 in D Major – Johann Sebastian Bach
Suite in G Minor – Johan Friedrich Fasch
Suite in Bb Major – Georg Philipp Telemann
 
Friday, September 12, 7 p.m. – Zimmerman’s Coffeehouse
Trio Sonata in G Minor, Op.2, No. 5 – George Frideric Handel
Trio Sonatas in F major and G Minor – Jan Dismas Zelenka
Sonata for violin and continuo in G Major – Johann Sebastian Bach
 
Saturday, September 13, 7 p.m. - Concerts Spirituels
Sonata in G Minor – Jean Féry Rebel
Suite in G major – Marin Marais
Medée – Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
Suite No. 3 from Pièces de clavecin en concerts – Jean-Philippe Rameau
 
Sunday, August 14, 4 p.m. – From Darkness to Light
Nimm von uns Herr du treuer Gott (Take away from us, Lord, faithful God), BWV 101
Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, (We must pass through great tribulation), BWV 146