This year’s 23-day, 100-event journey includes concerts ranging from the booming and boisterous to the intimate and candlelit—plus recitals, lectures, discussions, rehearsals and more. Here’s a look at some first week highlights.

SATURDAY, JULY 14

The Brilliant Colors of Bach

6:30pm/reception, 8pm/concert;

Sunset Cultural Center

The opening night concert launches the festival with great force—the music is big, with winds, brass, drums, voices, and harpsichord—as the Festival Chorale, youth chorus, Festival Orchestra and soloists perform music from the 21st century conducted by Bruno Weil, music director and conductor here since 1992. Meanwhile, soloists Kendra Colton, Sally-Anne Russell, Alan Bennett, Benjamin Butterfield, Michael Dean, and Sanford Sylvan also share the spotlight. The Bach Concerto No. 4 for Harpsichord in A Major is a definite highlight, followed by a piece by Estonian composer Arvo Part. This composition is notable for its BACH motif, the sequence of four notes—B flat, A, C, and B natural. Bach himself used this motif, as did many composers paying tribute to Bach. A choral prelude by early 20th century German composer Max Reger closes the evening.

SUNDAY, JULY 15

St. Matthew Passion

2:30pm, Sunset Cultural Center

The St. Matthew Passion is one of the more powerful pieces from the Baroque era and is one of only two surviving settings of the Passion that Bach wrote. Scholars consider this one of Bach’s most important works; it was written for a double orchestra and double choir. In this performance it also showcases the solo voices of Colton, Russell, Butterfield, and Sylvan.

MONDAY, JULY 16

Summer Reeding

2:30pm, Church of the Wayfarer

This recital features double reed (oboe and bassoon) performances by The Carmel Oboe Band. A five-composition show presents Wolfgan Basch on trumpet; Roger Cole and Neil Tatman, oboe; Ellen Sherman, English horn; Jesse Read and Britt Hebert, bassoon; and Dangsok Shin, harpsichord.

Inspirations, Intimates & Rivals

8pm, Sunset Cultural Center

Elizabeth Wallfisch, a world-renowned interpreter of violin repertoire from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, leads the Festival Strings with her violin in this compilation made up primarily of concertos. The rich tone of Sally-Anne Russell, the Australian mezzo-soprano diva, accompanies Wallfisch in a cantata by Telemann, a rival of Bach’s.

TUESDAY, JULY 17

“Gott ist mein König” (God is my King): The Aha! Concert

8pm, Sunset Theater

This performance amounts to a show-and-tell through music and narration, returning a year after its debut due to popular demand; several full-length pieces from a variety of Bach’s work comprise the Gott is Mein König (God is my King) program. Bruno Weil conducts while David Gordon, internationally-known opera and concert soloist and festival education director, narrates about the messages of life, thought and time that music relays, and about what makes music memorable.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18

Tenebrae Responsories:

Darkness to Light

6pm/dinner, 8:30pm/concert;

Carmel Mission Basilica

A splendid dinner accompanies the Festival Chorale’s a capella program, which takes listeners on a journey through chromaticism and color centered on the extraordinary artistry of Don Carlo Gesualdo and his 16th century composition. There is limited seating for this moving evening and tickets are sure to go quickly.

SATURDAY-TUESDAY, JULY 14-17

Pre-Concert Talks

Various times—see bachfest.org

David Gordon and Dr. Grant Voth bring their higher understandings down to earth in these daily discussions that precede the Main Concerts. Stories, listening tips, and interesting facts help bring the music to life.

Many of the highlights listed above are among the Main Concerts section of the Festival. The Festival also features chamber music, recitals and lectures in the afternoons, more intimate programs in the Sunset Theater foyer, a series of twilight and candlelight concerts, and some free family events. The Bach Festival runs from Saturday, July 14, to Saturday, Aug. 4. For a full schedule, visit bachfestival.org.