Music / Canberra Bach Ensemble. At St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka, August 10. Reviewed by  ALANNA MACLEAN.

This concert was quite a reminder of the warmth and the solidity of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

St Christopher’s Cathedral is a little on the chilly side and there was a momentary aural intrusion by a local hoon revving madly on the street outside, but the genial atmosphere created by artistic director and conductor Andrew Koll and the Canberra Bach Ensemble overcame all that.

The concert stressed how deeply reassuring Bach can be. These three cantatas were part of what looks like a very heavy schedule of composing while Bach was Cantor of the St Thomas Church in Leipzig. And there’s a fascinating story about how he got that job in the first place and how he was only the third choice. But what gorgeous music it must have been for those first audiences to soak up.

Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75 (The afflicted shall eat) opened the program and the patterns of performance using chorus, aria and recitative rapidly became clear. Some adjustment seemed to be needed early in the piece to make sure soloists could be heard against the orchestra, but under Koll’s genially steady hand that was quickly sorted.

This was followed by two shorter cantatas, Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot BVW 39 (Break your bread with the hungry) and Was Gott tut, das is wohlgetan BWV99 (What God does, is done well).

Bass Andrew Fysh was steady and authoritative, tenor Timothy Reynolds reassuring and clear, alto Maartje Sevenster warmly comforting in tone and soprano Greta Claringbould rich and assured.

The orchestra was small but fascinating in its use of instruments that sometimes needed a second look to confirm they were not modern. Lively and neatly co-ordinated playing came from Robyn Mellor and Olivia Gossip on the flauto dolce in Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot. And Geoffrey Burgess on the oboe d’amore and Sally Walker on flauto traverso were particularly spectacular in their duet in Was Gott tut, das is wohlgetan.

It’s hard to do justice to the detail of what was going on but there was a strong sense that justice was being done to Bach’s steady morally and musically persuasive works.