Fiddling Around With Bach

The ever-resourceful Berkshire Bach Society is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series titled “The Many Faces of Bach.†The next program takes place Nov. 27 at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington, MA, and features the premiére of the reconstruction of a long-lost Bach cantata, BWV 216, written for a pre-nuptial dinner in Leipzig, Germany. The vocal parts turned up only a few years ago in Japan, and BBS music director Kenneth Cooper has made an orchestral accompaniment to match.

   The program is inspired by the history of Zimmermann’s Coffeehaus, a trendy Leipzig nightspot of the time.

   A seasonal motif frames the program, with summer represented by an early version of Handel’s “Water Music,†autumn by a Vivaldi violin concerto with Marjorie Bagley, soloist, and the Corelli “Christmas Concerto†with portions of Luke spoken by Benjamin Luxon, who will be the host at “Zimmerman’s Coffeehaus†during intermission.

   Tickets $35. Students free with ID. Advance tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com or 800-838-3006. For information on upcoming concerts, go to  www.berkshirebach.org or call 413-528-9277.

   Old J. S. fiddled around with his own music from time to time, transcribing it for other instruments to get the most bang for the Bach, but couldn’t have dreamed that one day his work would be played on the electric bass. Lakeville musician John D’Ercole, trained at the Berklee College of Music, has just released a CD of favorite classical pieces expertly played on this rather unBaroque instrument. The tracks include the Prelude from the first Cello Suite, and two other short Bach works, plus the first movement of the “Moonlight†Sonata, “Für Elise,†Schubert’s “Ave Maria,†two studies by Carcassi and “Greensleeves.â€

   One seldom hears an electric bass apart from its function to pound out the beat in rock or jazz tunes, but D’Ercole makes the most of the instrument’s expressive possibilites, delicately and gracefully rendering each of the ten works. The extreme low range of the guitar is best appreciated on a good sound system; on my car radio most of the lows were lost, but in the living room it made soothing listening. A couple of the pieces sound a bit spare in his arrangements, and the “Moonlight†tempo is rather ponderous, but all in all this is an enjoyable album, and it’s already been selected for wider distribution by the CD manufacterer, Spinergy. At the moment it’s available at Four Seasons in Lakeville or digitally through links at www.johndercole.com.

   Hot tip: pianist Gayle Martin Henry, an internationally renowned recitalist who has played at the White House and won high praise for her New York recitals, will give a free concert at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, CT, Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m. The last student at Juilliard of the great pedagogue Rosina Lhévinne, Henry will play “Pictures at an Exhibition†by Mussorgsky, and preludes by Rachmaninoff. An informal reception to celebrate the concert in conjunction with the Kustodiev Children’s Art Exhibit opening will precede the program at 5:30 pm. For reservations call 860-868-7586 or visit www.gunnlibrary.org The Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at Route 47 in Washington, CT.