By Avril Rowland
The Bard Baroque Ensemble, Bard Chamber Singers, and Graduate Vocal Arts Program from Bard College Conservatory of Music come together to perform four pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach. The musicians use techniques authentic to the time to recreate the sound Bach himself would have heard and intended, and the groups all sound lovely and polished while performing together.
Unfortunately, there are issues with the recording itself that prevent the listener from fully appreciating the music. The recording is quiet, but audible if you turn your volume up enough. However, I could not make out a word of the poetic interlude with my volume as high as it would go without straining to listen at the speakers. Part of the reason the video is so long is because the transitions between songs have been included, which create distracting stretches of silence with some noise from the audience. There is also no information about the songs being played anywhere in the video. Something like a simple list at the start of the video that tells the viewer the names of the pieces and maybe their primary performers would have been a nice addition.
I enjoyed the music when it was playing, but the technical difficulties and low quality of the recording proved distracting and disruptive to the musicians’ hard work. Some basic video editing could have solved these problems and kept the focus on the music where it belonged. I give this performance three out of five stars.
Avril is a senior majoring in writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She aims to have a career publishing her writing one day.
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