Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Bach's Musical Offering

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Bach's Musical Offering at Folly Theater

Bach's Musical Offering is just one part of a program that reaches across his family. When Friends of Chamber Music and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center bring this program to Kansas City's Folly Theater, you'll hear works by Johann Christian, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach alongside their father's intricate masterpiece, creating an evening that moves between contrasting musical personalities while staying rooted in baroque brilliance.

The centerpiece carries a fascinating royal backstory. In 1747, Bach composed The Musical Offering using a theme from Frederick the Great of Prussia, weaving it through ricercars, canons, and a trio sonata that transforms a king's musical challenge into enduring art. Chamber music lets you follow individual instrumental lines conversing like characters in an intimate dialogue rather than blending into orchestral mass.

The announced musicians include Kenneth Weiss on harpsichord, violinists Bella Hristova and Sean Lee, violist Matthew Lipman, flutist Sooyun Kim, and oboist James Austin Smith. Their distinct instruments make the program's interwoven voices inviting to follow, while the ricercars and canons turn a single royal theme into a lively musical puzzle.

The sons' music adds contrasting personalities alongside their father's ingenious centerpiece. At the Folly Theater in Kansas City, that mix makes the chamber concert more than a single-composer showcase. Find tickets for the December 15 performance.