The 26th Bach & Beyond Baroque Music Festival continued on Saturday with Maestro Grant Cooper leading the International Baroque Soloists in concert at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center. The program included a symphony and two concertos, which continued the thematic threads of this year’s festival, exploring composer connections between Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, and the development of the clarinet.

Cheryl Bishkoff, a longtime Festival favorite, set the tone for the second concert with a featured performance of Oboe Concerto in F Major by Christoph Graupner (1683-1760). Graupner, who may not be familiar to even the most ardent of Baroque music connoisseurs, was a renowned German composer, particularly in Leipzig, having studied at the Thomasschule.

He was offered the cantorship of St. Thomas Church in 1722 but ultimately declined the position, making room for J. S. Bach to serve in this coveted role from 1723 until his death. While many concert goers might consider Graupner’s music inferior to that of the Festival’s titular hero, it is easy for me to draw conclusions, based upon Bishkoff’s performance, as to why contemporaries of these two composers may have preferred the music of Graupner over Bach. Graupner seems to have embraced compositional aesthetics and techniques that would become known as the galant style, fashionable between the 1720s and the 1770s. In an age where new and contemporary innovation was regarded with high esteem, it isn’t surprising to imagine that Bach’s older, yet technically proficient, style of music might not have been seen as exciting in the moment. The International Baroque Soloists, while not initially demonstrating the same degree of precision that was on display during the previous evening’s concert, came to life in the third movement, where Bishkoff’s dynamic control and artistic sensibilities really shined.

The program continued with a performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s quirky Symphony No. 60. Haydn (1732-1809) created this symphony in 1774 as an adaptation from incidental music he composed for a German-language performance of Jean-Francois Regnard’s play entitled Le Distrait (The Absent-Minded Gentleman). Haydn’s symphony is often nicknamed “Il Distratto” (or “Der Zerstreute” in German) as a reference to this adaptation.

As most concert reviews tend to reveal more about the reviewer than the event they are reviewing, I must admit that the second movement (Andante) left me feeling a little like the distracted gentleman in question, with Haydn’s music unable to push the events of my life (and the outside world) from my thoughts. Thankfully, the ensemble’s infectious energy and lively gesticulations during the subsequent Menuetto and Presto movements pulled me from my “to-do list” and back into the concert hall for, what eventually became, an enjoyable experience. It’s also worthy to mention that Maestro Cooper announced from the stage, and included in the printed program’s welcome message, a contemporary connection between this Haydn symphony and the 15-minute work for chamber orchestra by English composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980) entitled Sound and Fury (written in 2019). A QR code was provided, so that the audience could view a performance of Clyne’s energetic composition on their own time, and I sincerely hope that they did; it’s a fantastic piece!

After intermission, the concert concluded with clarinetist Jonathan Decker, this year’s featured young, emerging artist, performing W. A. Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet in A Major, K. 622. Speaking as a clarinetist, any performance of the Mozart (1756-1791) concerto is incredibly demanding, and not simply in terms of the technique required to communicate it effectively to audiences.

The challenge with this particular concerto is its place in our cultural zeitgeist: every serious clarinetist knows and/or has performed this composition in some capacity. Adding to this wide-reaching familiarity, Mozart’s writing leaves little room for error; the music is so transparent that even the slightest flaw seems monumental, especially while you are performing it on stage.

I’m thrilled to report that Decker gave a strong, polished performance, with near-recording-quality precision in both the first and second movements. His beautifully even tone filled the 1891 Opera House with a confidence that was truly captivating and deserving of the audience’s standing ovation. With two outstanding solo performances behind him, I was greatly looking forward to hearing his award-winning interpretation of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto the following day, on the Festival’s matinee conclusion.

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.