Bach & Forward by The Song Company blends voices and instruments

The Song Company may be best known for its a cappella singing but its accomplishments extend far beyond a repertoire of exclusively vocal works. And in this first concert of its 2016 season, a series of concerts aptly taking its title from Ariel's song, Into Something Rich and Strange, the audience will hear just how voices and instruments can blend together, the whole even more beautiful than the sum of the parts.

The ensemble has a new artistic director for the 2016 season. Antony Pitts comes to the company in a whirlwind of musical ideas and vigorous practice, taking care to preserve all the tradition of a cappella singing while eager to forge new pathways. "We are not starting from a blank page," he says, "I'm going to build [on what we have] and try to push it in new ways." It's a hard act to follow Roland Peelman who for 25 years led the group of singers to the forefront of musical quality and innovation.

The Song Company also has a new general manager this year. Tim Carter returns from 10 years in the corporate world to use his broad experience in all aspects of music and drama to work with this ensemble.

For the first concert, Bach & Forward, in Canberra at Wesley Uniting Church on Saturday, February 27, two guest artists will join the singers: organist Neal Peres Da Costa and cellist Daniel Yeadon, who spoke with me about the program.

Yeadon, who moved to Sydney in 2002, is something of a Renaissance man: an Oxford physics graduate and scientific book editor as well as a period instrument specialist who plays both the cello and viola da gamba with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera and the Australian Bach Ensemble among other groups. He has just returned from England and a tour of Europe with the English Baroque Soloists. In July he will be in Canberra with the Australian Haydn Ensemble as soloist in Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, a very popular cello work but one rarely performed on period instruments.

The Bach & Forward program includes three Bach Motets: BWV 228, 225 and 226, works that have been in performance repertoire ever since Bach wrote them and which have intrigued and inspired later composers.

"The basso continuo accompaniment to the voices makes for a richer sound," Yeadon says."The organ fills in the harmony. The pieces are such dense counterpoint but it helps to have a different focus of sound; a complementary sound. Bach made very clever use of text and made a very subtle exploration of counterpoint."

And what is the most inspiring aspect of these works?

"Oh, the sense of joy," Yeadon says, "despite some dark parts in the music. Later composers were fascinated by Bach's compositional style –his fugues intrigued them and his sheer sense of melody writing that comes through in the counterpoint."

A selection of Sacred Pieces, Op 23, by Mendelssohn is also on the program and his Motets, Op. 69. "The Motets are interesting because Mendelssohn takes a Lutheran chorale and sets it in a different style," Yeadon says. "And we'll also perform Schumann's Fuga on B-A-C-H. Schumann was fascinated with Bach's fugues and we can see how he develops them.

"In Brahms' chorale preludes and motets we can also hear the interesting way in which he develops Bach – a very different way but with a Romantic slant. He most successfully captures that dichotomy of the dark and the light."

Yeadon enjoys both playing as part of a chamber ensemble or orchestra and as a soloist.

"In most operatic pieces the harmony is so engaging that it's just a pleasure to be shaping the bass line but in a chamber concert I always ensure that I have solo piece. You require different mindsets for different roles."

He will have the opportunity to delight the audience with solo performances of the slow movement from Bach's Sonata for keyboard and viola da gamba in G minor and, on cello, of three chorale preludes by Brahms.