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| St. Augustine's Catholic Church - 16 March 2024 |
1705. It’s autumn in northern Germany. A young composer sets out from the city of Arnstadt to make the gruelling journey on foot to Lübeck, almost 400 km to the north. His reason? To hear some music by a 68-year-old organist who is nearing the end of his career. But this isn’t just any organist, and the steadfast walker isn’t just any young composer.
Those of us who are enamoured with baroque music know the story of Bach’s walk in 1705 to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude play the organ. We do know (this is important) that he did get to the town and did hear the composer/organist he so admired. Why is this important?
At last night’s combination of fine baroque music, that did include Bach and Buxtehude, UBC mathematics professor, Doctor Fok-Shuen Leung (Oxford, no less!) gave and interesting talk on the subject of infinity. Judging by two young men who questioned Leung after the concert talk, I believe that the proceedings might have lasted as long as a hyperbola reaching the x-axis at infinity.
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| Dr. Fok-Shuen Leung |
Leung told us about a hotel with an infinity of rooms. A
person shows up and wants to rent a room. He is told that the hotel is full.
The solution found, is to move the occupant of Room 1 to Room 2 and so on so
that the new guest occupies Room 1. From an infinity of rooms Leung arrived at the third part of his talk on the that entity that is infinitely perfect. Appropriately, inside a Roman Catholic church, that had to be God.
My thoughts on those full hotel rooms, have to do with Bach and Buxtehude. Once Bach arrived at the church(?), he has to make one step forward to enter and so on. Like the old Zeno paradox of the hare and the tortoise, do they ever catch up? Leung uses the logical conclusion that somehow they do. By Leung’s logic we know then that Bach did listen to Buxtehude play the organ.
The group that played the music of the night, including Schmeltzer (his fame never quite made him catch up to Bach, as un-Zeno like, he died before Bach was born) was a stellar ensemble of young luminaries.
The masons that built the medieval cathedrals, with their secret handshakes, in this 21st century have been replaced by these musicians whose ability to read music and perform it escapes most of us.
While I have always been a fan and veteran of baroque performance I had never heard Bach’s Goldberg Variations with more instruments than a harpsichord or piano. The arrangement played last night was a pleasant surprise.
Soprano Brittany St. Clair was marvellous in her diction of German and organist/harpsichordist Connor Page must have a great future coming to him. He will quickly catch up to Vancouver’s best as he is no tortoise.
Violinist Majka Demcak, as young as she is, graduated from Julliard. Imagine that! Violinist Rebecca Ruthven (she of the loveliest smile) played with lots of enthusiasm reading the music from what looked like an iPad.
My best kudos, I am leaving for stand-up bassist Jesse Lu. In my 81 years I had only heard one bassist (Ron Carter) play Bach’s Cello Suites. Imagine being present for a second time and listening to Lu play purely from memory!
I am not sure if Fok-Shuen Leung would agree with my dictum that coincidence is more often than not. Last October in Mexico City I spotted a lovely image of La Virgen de Guadalupe in a downtown parking lot wall. What are the chances that I would find a similar one on, altar right, at a Kitsilano church called St. Augustine?
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| At St. Augustine's |
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| Mexico City - October 2023 |
