Berkshire Bach Society Presents Harpsichord Festival
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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Berkshire Bach Society opens its 2026-2027 season with a Harpsichord Festival on Sunday, Sept. 20, 3pm, at the Berkshire Waldorf HS (the Old Town Hall) in Stockbridge.
Distinguished American harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss kicks off the festival with the six Partitas for Keyboard, BWV 825-830, by J.S. Bach.
?"We are very pleased to present Kenneth Weiss playing the Bach Partitas in our first concert of the new season," said Terrill McDade, Executive Director of Berkshire Bach Society. "The term Partita is deceptively simple; the works themselves are anything but. The six suites present an astonishing variety of ideas, colors, and challenges. Kenneth Weiss's performance is illuminating and helps us understand the transformations that Bach lays out for us. It is a satisfying, moving, and magical experience. He is simply a master."
According to a press release:
The Partitas were written almost exactly 300 years ago and comprise the third and most virtuosic of Bach's three great keyboard collections, alongside the so-called English and French Suites. First published individually and then together in 1731 as the Clavier ?bung I, the works are icons of Baroque keyboard literature and are rarely heard as a set in a single performance. In a tour de force, Kenneth Weiss brings them all richly to life--brilliant music played by a true virtuoso for connoisseurs and novitiates alike.
Kenneth Weiss is Professor of Chamber Music at the Paris Conservatoire and BBS principal harpsichordist for Bach at New Year’s. On September 20 he plays the double manual harpsichord built by pioneer harpsichord maker William Dowd in 1975, on loan from Amherst College. Berkshires audiences may remember his exquisite performance of the ‘Goldberg’ Variations last season. This year he also plays for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and repeats the Partitas program at the Lausanne Bach Festival – Baroque Academy in Lausanne, Switzerland, in addition to participating in Bach festivals in Weimar and Leipzig. He returns to the Berkshires in Working Musician, a BBS Portals event on January 30, 2027 as part of the collaboration between BBS and the Tanglewood Learning Institute at the Linde Center for Music and Learning. In Working Musician, he joins BBS Artistic Director and violinist Eugene Drucker in a performance of Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord by Bach.
Tickets $50 for nonmembers, $45 for BBS Members. $10 Card to Culture (with card). Children and Students under 25 always admitted FREE.
Visit www.berkshirebach.org/events for more information and tickets.
