Bach Collegium Japan

I waited months to see this show. I knew it would be wonderful.

The picture above is not the building, but it is the booklet that has all the events in it.

Below is the actual place.

It’s called Armstrong Auditorium and is located right outside of Edmond in what looks like the middle of nowhere. When we arrived it was already dark and there didn’t seem to be anything else around except for another big building across from it and a few houses on the other side of the road. I’ve never been to this place before and it looked fancy af. Pillars, glass, and giant chandeliers. It’s my new favorite place. This is what I saw when we drove up.

And then you get inside and see this. And lots of it.

Here’s the view of a chandelier from the second floor.

And here’s the second floor’s floor.

Take a look at all that shine.

Until you get into the auditorium and then it’s like dang what happened.

The lights and ceiling are nice and the seating was comfy and really clean but the stage looked like it could be in some old, dirty basement in a sketchy part of town.

But you know I’d still go.

This is the song list.

Out of all of these, my favorite was Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067 II. Rondeau. Imagine trying to look for that in iTunes.

I did. And I found it! So now it’s in my unorganized playlist of Black Dahlia Murder, Britney Spears, ZZ Top, and (almost) everything in between excluding country.

I think the reason I like this song so much is that it reminds me of that old movie Troll. Not the cute colorful kids movie Trolls, I’m talking about the scary movie from the 80s. Like it transports you to some magical forest with fairies, unicorns, blue sky and clean sparkling water. Not that the movie is like that, it’s actually gross with green mold and stuff, but the song sounds like it would be on the soundtrack to a nice magical-rainbow-glitter-forest or something. I’m sure there is intelligent meaning behind the song, but this is ME, so you’re going to get a comparison to 80s movies and things that supposedly don’t exist.

But this isn’t my first encounter with this music and I know it isn’t yours. It’s everywhere, whether you notice it or not. My first memory of this kind of music is from another movie (Another movie? Eye roll) called Trading Places. That movie is from the 80s AND my favorite Christmas movie. I thought you should know.

I also think you should know this team of instrumentalists was amazing. I want to describe everything but how do I describe beyond amazing? Their playing was seamless and perfect? They are “internationally known and highly reputed” and it is no doubt? They have the magical playing power to sweep you away to some dreamy far off kingdom for a moment? It’s like they were born with those instruments in their hands and were already playing Bach before they went home from the hospital? I don’t even know where to start.

The show was absolutely marvelous, that’s all I can say. I enjoyed it immensely and will definitely attend the next time they stop in Oklahoma.

Read about them here. Don’t worry, it’s in English too.

http://bachcollegiumjapan.org/en/

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