During the weekend of June 9 to 11, I had the privilege of attending the Bach & Beyond Baroque Music Festival at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center. Maestro Grant Cooper, who has provided the artistic vision of this festival for the past 26 years, directed the International Baroque Soloists through a delightful program of Baroque, Classical, and 20th-century musical offerings, resulting in great acclaim from an enthusiastic audience.

The programming of this year’s festival served three laudable goals: showcasing the talents of young, emerging musicians, exploring the development of the clarinet through the centuries, and highlighting a thread of continuity between German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and the greater musical community of Western “Classical” music, past and present. That last aim was achieved by juxtaposing pieces created by some of Bach’s contemporaries, specifically those who forestalled the Baroque master’s appointment to “Thomascantor” at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Cooper efficiently satisfied the former goals by selecting three relevant works from the clarinet’s repertoire, which featured clarinetist Jonathan Decker (Falmouth, MA), a young artist winner of the 2022 Eastern Music Festival Concerto Competition.

This year’s Baroque Music Festival opened with Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D Major, BWV 1054, featuring soloist Harris Andersen. There was beautiful synergy between the members of the International Baroque Soloists and Andersen throughout the performance. Andersen played the tastefully amplified harpsichord with great technical agility and superb artistic expression. Cooper, proving once again to be a virtuoso when it comes to facilitating communication within his ensemble, led the group with a brilliant sensitivity, and deference, to the soloist’s phrasing. While I’ve only been reviewing this Festival for a small fraction of its existence, I can safely say that this piece was the best performance here that I have heard to date, in terms of its precision of technique and resonance of expression. I was so captivated, I wanted to throw all venerable concert tradition and etiquette aside and applaud vigorously after the completion of the first movement. Fortunately, out of respect for the other members of the audience, I was able to restrain my enthusiasm until the final movement’s closing chords.

Next on the program was Jonathan Decker’s performance of a Chalumeau Concerto by Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758). Fasch, one of the composers who was preferred to accept the job at St. Thomas over Bach, wrote this composition for a forerunner of the modern clarinet. Put simply, Jonathan Decker is a terrific, charming performer. After a bit of a “false start,” due to the absence of a bassist on stage, the first movement was played from the beginning a second time, and I marveled at Decker’s technical consistency and smoothness of tone throughout the clarinet’s various registers. Some critics might have thought the interpretive decisions made by Cooper and Decker during this piece were a bit too Romantic for a Baroque composition, but I found them to be a true testament to human vitality expressed through music: a hallmark of this particular festival.

After a brief intermission the concert continued with some chamber music by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), specifically the Sonata, Op. 5, No. 4 in F Major. This trio sonata was exquisitely performed by Jeremy Hill (violin), Elizabeth Simkin (cello), and Alan Giambattista (harpsichord), showcasing the group’s strong sense of dynamic nuance and thoughtful coordination. These three musicians had a remarkably unified, intimate sound, which yielded a delightful contrast to the relatively larger works on the program.

Lastly, Cheryl Bischkoff’s performance of the Concerto for Oboe d’amore in A Major by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) concluded the evening’s musical adventure. Bishkoff, being no stranger to annual attendees of this festival, having performed on all 26 seasons, dazzled us with her warm sound and impeccable lyricism.

Honestly, the strength of performances on this first concert made me forget where I was, leaving me with a sense of pride and gratitude to have such a musical gem right here in our proverbial backyard. To say that I was excited to return for the Saturday evening event would have been a significant understatement.

Andrew Martin Smith is a composer, clarinetist, General Manager of the Society of Composers, Inc., and Senior Adjunct Lecturer of Music at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he teaches courses in music theory and composition, in addition to his role as Instructor of Music Theory and Composition at Interlochen Center for the Arts, via Interlochen Online and Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Mich.