Buxtehude's Daughter

"Songs to Amuse": The Classic Side!

                                                                          

YOU'VE WONDERED ALL YOUR LIFE why Bach didn’t take that job in Lübeck. Fantastic church, massive organ (simmer down, you), and he’d have succeeded the great Buxtehude. He is supposed to have walked over 200 miles to get the interview. We know one of the reasons: Bach discovered that he would have to marry Buxtehude’s daughter to get the gig, and she didn’t appeal to him.

Photo by Joseph Schuyler

What was the interview like? Tom Savoy and I asked ourselves that question and, seized by the spirit of Bach, wrote a cantata to answer it. The one thing we can assert about this work: Not a word of it is true. That spirit of Bach turned out to be more P.D.Q. than J.S.

Enjoy a rare opportunity to enjoy this cantata, “Buxtehude’s Daughter,” in a performance at 2 PM Sunday, October 5, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society, 405 Washington Ave, Albany. Amy Prothro sings the role of Anna Margareta, C. F. Schwartz is Bach, and I’ll be old Buxtehude.

Better still, there are strings attached: specifically, members of Musicians of Ma’alwyck, who will join us in the performance. Plus a flute, but if I try to make a joke about that I fear I’ll blow it.

Amy and I will warm you up with selections from our cabaret show “Songs to Amuse,” with Malcolm Kogut at the piano – songs by Bernstein, Sondheim, Gershwin, Flanders & Swann, and even Roger Miller.

After we’ve put you through all that, you’ll be turned loose on a champagne dessert buffet. And you’ll still have time enough to go home and rake a few leaves. It’s an afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at 518/377-3623 or www.musiciansofmaalwyck.org (under Songs to Amuse). Or just show up and buy your way in.