A special kind of thrill happened during The Bach Choir of Bethlehem 2024 “Christmas Concert.”

It was like witnessing a mission to the moon, which, in a way, it was: The Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s own moonshot moment.

The concerts were Dec. 7, First Presbyterian Church, Allentown, and Dec. 8, First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem. The Dec. 7 concert was attended for this review.

Bach Choir of Bethlehem concerts are often described by attendees and in reviews as “heavenly.” The music of J.S. Bach conveys, portrays and espouses texts and emotions pertaining to belief systems about the universe, principally that of the Christian faith and, specifically, the liturgical tradition of Martin Luther and the art of psalmody.

The music, the conductor, the musicians, the singers, the words in the world of Bach aspire to an otherworldly power. When the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and Festival Orchestra and soloists combine to make music, that heavenly appellation is not hyperbole.

Bach’s music takes flight on the wings of the choir, musicians and soloists. You can see the inspiration on the performers’ faces and in their swaying and rhapsodic body language. They soar so that we, the audience, can, too. They lift us up. They lift our spirits. They manifest a sound beyond the descriptive powers of tongue-tied and clumsy-fingered critics.

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem 2024 “Christmas Concert” was particularly remarkable and memorable in a year of memorable performances in the Lehigh Valley and beyond by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

The “Christmas Concert” first portion was Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern,” BWV 1, and Johann Kuhnau’s Movement No. 3 from “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern,” translated as “How Brightly Shines the Morning Star.” All’s well and traditional.

The concert’s second portion was the Lehigh Valley premiere performance of Kile Smith’s “The Consolation of Apollo,” also all’s well, albeit very untraditional.

The two works, though separated by centuries (Bach: 1685-1750; Kuhnau: 1660-1722; Smith: born 1956), share more motifs than one might realize.

“How Brightly Shines the Morning Star” sets Bible verses to music from a Lutheran hymn by Philipp Nicolai written in 1597 and based on Psalm 45, symbolizing a heavenly bridegroom described by the prophet David. And, of course, the singing of “Morning Star, O Cheering Sight,” is a longstanding tradition in Moravian congregations at Christmastime in Bethlehem and elsewhere.

“The Consolation of Apollo” sets Bible verses to music from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 1: ”In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”

The “Apollo” of the title of Smith’s work references the verses from Genesis read Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968, during a worldwide television broadcast by the NASA Apollo 8 crew, Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell Jr. and William A. Anders, on the first human space flight to leave low-Earth orbit and travel to the moon and back.

Apollo 8 was a generational highlight of 1968, a “hinge of history” year otherwise marked by tragedy: Vietnam War battle benchmarks, war protests, and the Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations.

On their ninth orbit around the Moon, the astronauts recited verses 1 through 10 of the Genesis creation narrative from the King James Bible. Anders read verses 1- 4, Lovell read verses 5 - 8 and Borman read verses 9 and 10. It is said the Genesis text was printed on fire-proof paper and included in the mission flight plan. An estimated one billion in 64 countries watched the television broadcast.

In his magnificent and ambitious work, Smith doesn’t take the Genesis verses out of context. Rather, he puts the verses in context, as he also sets the music for verses of the astronauts getting ready for the recitation. Says Borman: “Hey, why don’t we start reading that thing.”

The three debate whether they are approaching sunset or sunrise, until Lovell and Anders agree, saying, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise.”

All of this is sung by choir and soloists and performed by the orchestra in a way that provides anticipation, tension and the thrill of success or failure. “The Consolation of Apollo” is very much in the moment. Yes, we know the triumphant outcome of Apollo 8. However, Smith composed the piece so that we are right there with the astronauts when the outcome was still far off.

“How Brightly Shines the Morning Star,” indeed. Here, the “Morning Star” was Earth.

Smith sets the words of Genesis and the words of the astronauts as a kind of rarefied chant.

Comparisons are a lazy critic’s crutch. Not to diminish Smith’s mighty opus, yet to give an idea of what Smith has achieved, think “Einstein on the Beach” (1976) by composer Philip Glass and librettist Robert Wilson. “The Consolation of Apollo” is in that operatic league, or better yet, orbit.

Moreover, Smith providentially, imaginatively and brilliantly juxtaposes the astronauts’ words with excerpts from “The Consolation of Philosophy,” written by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (circa 480-524 AD), Roman senator, historian, philosopher and Christian scholar of the 6th century (Early Middle Ages), when he was imprisoned (and later martyred). In 1976, a lunar crater was named in honor of Boethius. Yes, Boethius was that impactful.

The “Consolation” sets up a kind of “woe is me” dialogue undergirded by a sturdy optimism, between man, represented by Boethius, and the universe, represented by philosophy, on the nature of man and man’s dominion and relationship with the denizens of Earth, with the opening section, “Thou may’st know, if thou will notice.” It’s an Edenic perspective. Again, all this is sung as if by angelic voices.

There follows ”Yes, it’s beautiful,” apparently depicting the astronauts navigating the Apollo 8 capsule from the dark side of the moon, as the blue marble of Earth appears to rise in pitch-black space above a monochromatic brown-gray lunar surface horizon, in the iconic “Earthrise” photo taken Dec. 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 crewmember Anders.

Next is “Wings are mine,” with text from “Consolation,” whereby Boethius seems to Icarus-like presage space flight or at least the soaring of the soul after death. The text chillingly amplifies the dangerous mission that was Apollo 8 and remains all of space flight to this day.

In the fourth segment, “The Sea of Tranquility,” a future moon mission landing site is surveilled and discussed with Houston Ground Control.

Boethius returns with “While the bright sun,” which seems to describe the temporal nature of existence framed by the vastness of space.

“In the beginning” quotes the astronauts’ reading from Genesis.

“The stars shine,” the seventh and concluding segment, returns us to Boethius’ “Consolation,” with a reference to “the morning star” and the impermanence of “false happiness” and the desire for “true happiness” of the soul.

“The Consolation of Apollo” implies that man’s endeavors, whether in the heavens of space flight or on Earth in choir and orchestra concert performance, provide hope for some sort of solace.

The pairing of the avant-garde with the old guard by Bach Choir of Bethlehem Artistic Director & Conductor Dr. Christopher Jackson was a stroke of genius. And to bring this forth as the Bach Choir’s 2024 “Christmas Concert” is beyond measure. It was indeed the Bach Choir’s own moonshot.

Bang went the bass drum at the start of “The Consolation of Apollo.” Jackson teasingly warned those in the front rows to be prepared. Projections of the moon, the Apollo 8 space capsule and the astronauts, along with the work’s lyrics, were displayed on two screens between performers and audience.

The choir sang breathtakingly and the musicians played magnificently, bringing “Consolation” to their performance and the audience’s ears and emotions. Kile Smith’s ”The Consolation of Apollo” is a major work that deserves the wide recognition and concertizing already received, and more.

A recording of the work is in order, hopefully by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, as a soundtrack for the United States’ next moonshot and “America 250,” the 250th anniversary in 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

”The Consolation of Apollo” could commemorate the Lehigh Valley’s own citizen astronaut, Jared Issacman, a nominee to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and to celebrate the Artemis moon missions, with plans for a piloted voyage around the moon April 2026 and a lunar landing in mid-2027. Isaacman was commander of Inspiration4, a private spaceflight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience, Sept. 16 - 18, 2021, and the Polaris Dawn mission, Sept. 12 -15, when he became the first private citizen to take a spacewalk.

The optics were perfect for “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (“How Brightly Shines the Morning Star”) to open the Dec. 7 and 8 “Christmas Concert.”

The Choir began with the title serving as the first verse in a soaring and omnipresence sound that seemed to envelope the listener, amplified by the First Presbyterian Church, Allentown, sanctuary design, reminiscent of a gigantic sound speaker cabinet.

Featured artists were Nola Richardson, soprano; Katelyn Grace Jackson, soprano; Janna Critz, mezzo-soprano; Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano; Lawrence Jones, tenor; Nathan Hodgson, tenor; Steven Eddy, baritone, Daniel Schwartz, bass; Elizabeth Field, violin; Claire Bright, violin, and Nobuo Kitagawa, oboe.

The Soprano Aria by Richardson was effervescent, with clarity, precision and seemingly effortless articulation that was startling and beautiful to behold. She was accompanied by Kitagawa, oboe, whose distinctive solos always delight. The Aria’s verses, including “flames of heaven,” and the Bass Recitative, with the verse, “An earthly glow,” seemed to foreshadow “The Consolation of Apollo.”

The concluding Choral, with Bach Choir and orchestra in full force, brought a soothing, satisfying and reassuring conclusion to “How Brightly Shines the Morning Star,” setting up the anticipation for “The Consolation of Apollo,” which was certainly fulfilled.

They soar so that we might join them as listeners and advocates as our eyes and man’s collective imagination again turns skyward as we look to the moon.

A moonshot takes a certain kind of faith, a belief in science, in one’s team, in one’s goals, in one’s self.

This is the stuff of heroes, whether in space or on Earth, whether astronauts or scientists, whether J.S. Bach or Kile Smith and whether the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and those who dare to accept the challenge to perform such rarefied works.

To Bach and beyond: Thus it is and ever more will be.

information: Bach Choir office, 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem; office@bach.org; 610-866-4382 ext. 110 or 115; https://bach.org/