Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra combines baroque music with multimedia, informative narration, audience participation and glorious music. They returned to the Lobero Theatre for a CAMA Santa Barbara Masterseries concert, and as always there was a theme to their show. This time it was a celebration of Johan Sebastian Bach, his music and the broader music making world of his time. Narrator Blair Williams took the audience on a journey from how instruments were made to the life and themes that Bach composed for and about. Fascinating disquisitions about the sheep “industry” of the time, from wool to meat, led into a little film about the making of instrument strings from sheep gut, then and now. The evening featured such music as Andante, after Cantata 208/9: “Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze)” and many pieces that were typical of what was played at weekly Friday night sessions at Zimmeman’s Coffee House in Leipzig, led by the great man himself. There was also a little sing along to the first 8 notes of the Goldberg Variations, as well as excerpts form that monumental work.
