The Time for Humor is Neigh (Orlando Arts)
By Connie Sue White
John Sinclair will be the first to admit that classical music has a reputation for being, well, kind of stuffy. But the artistic director of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park — who has never been described as stuffy, regardless of his rarified profession — thinks it’s time to change the perception of the music he presents.
On March 25, Sinclair is conducting an Insights & Sounds program entitled Musical Humor. It’s the fourth year for this crowd-pleasing presentation, which reminds listeners that great composers were human beings, too, with plenty of foibles that sometimes manifested themselves in their work.
“Everybody who attends is going to have a ball,” promises Sinclair, who also heads the music department at Rollins College and routinely fascinates his students with stories about the sometimes turbulent lives of eccentric musical greats who have been lionized to the point that they’re now more icons than people.
“Composers were funny people, and they’d write music that was funny,” Sinclair says. “Mozart had a childish humor. Haydn was fun loving and impish. They say Bach had a funny bone, too.”
The evening will feature members of the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra, under Sinclair’s baton, performing humorous works by composers such as Anton Dvorak, Michael and Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini — not usually top of mind when comedic geniuses are listed.
One of the pieces on the program is the classic Duetto Buffo Di Due Gatti (cat duet) by Rossini, a fan of felines. Only one word is sung throughout the entire piece: “Meow.”
Other treats include catches and rounds (think group versions of “row, row, row your boat”) at which Michael Haydn was prolific. You’ll also hear the absurd Art of the Ground Round by P.D.Q. Bach, who is in fact parodist and professor Peter Schickele, creator of the fictional “youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children” of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Sinclair will further enliven the proceedings with audience participation and question-and-answer sessions. “My goodness, do we need to laugh right now, so it’s a perfect time to present Musical Humor,” he says.
[Musical Humor will take place in Knowles Memorial Chapel]…expect socially distanced seating pre-admission temperature checks and a requirement that masks be worn. A virtual option will be available thanks to the festival’s Bach at Home program.
Check bachfestivalflorida.org for in-person and online ticket prices call 407.646.2182.