Finding Freedom Inside Bach

Devan Jaquez and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2

In Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2, the flute steps into the spotlight, but never does so alone.

Written in the late 1730s, the suite places the flute at the center of a musical dialogue, moving through a series of dances that range from stately to playful. For KSO Principal Flute Devan Jaquez, the balance – between structure and freedom, solo voice and conversation – is what makes this piece especially rewarding to perform.

“My favorite thing about playing Bach, really baroque music in general,” says Jaquez, “is the opportunity the composer gives the performer to improvise in the way of ornamentation.”

KSO Principal Flute Devan Jaquez (center) is featured in January’s Chamber Series program.

In Bach’s time, performers were expected to shape the music in the moment, especially when passages repeat. “The solo flute gets the opportunity to mess around with the music a little bit, adding a couple of notes here, adding a little trill there,” Jaquez says.

That freedom extends beyond ornamentation to the flute’s place within the ensemble. “Even when I am playing, I’m not always the solo,” Jaquez says. “Listeners might enjoy taking note of when the flute takes the lead solo role, and when it is accompanying the rest of the ensemble.” Those shifts are easy to hear in movements like the opening Overture and the Badinerie, where the flute moves between leading and listening, always in conversation with the ensemble.

This concert also marks a personal milestone for Jaquez, his first time performing Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2. “I always relish the opportunity to play with my amazing colleagues here at the KSO,” he says, “not just as a soloist, but in every capacity that I have the opportunity to.”

Jaquez holds the Karen Keys & Keith Walburn Bryan Chair as the KSO’s Principal Flute and is a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory and UCLA.

Haydn “Oxford” Symphony, part of the Roy Cockrum Chamber Series, will be performed Sunday, Jan. 25 at 3:00 pm at the Bijou Theatre. This concert is sponsored by Julia Caroline White.

Background on Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 is adapted from the KSO program notes by Ken Meltzer.