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Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
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Director of Ancient Music makes magic
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| Director of Ancient Music makes magic | |
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by Sharon Cumberland -
SGN Contributing Writer THE ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC EARLY MUSIC GUILD TOWN HALL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16 Anyone who spent last Saturday night with the Early Music Guild at Town Hall was lavishly rewarded. The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) led from the harpsichord by its new director, Richard Egarr, presented a program of Bach, Handel and Telemann that displayed the full complexity and excitement of the golden age of Baroque music. Conducting with his head and a periodic lift of the left hand from the keyboard, Egarr not only embodied the energy of a repertoire whose many layers rest on a driving continuo, but he even bore a resemblance to the young Handel as the Saxon composer looks, leaning on his keyboard, in the 1735 Mercier portrait - stocky, brilliant, masterful. The triumph of Egarr and the AAM in the past eighteen months - since the retirement of its founder, director and harpsichordist, Christopher Hogwood - must be a relief to all who have loved this period-instrument orchestra since its founding in 1973. Hogwood was in the vanguard of musician/musicologists convinced that seventeenth and eighteenth century - "ancient" - music had to be played on early instruments in order to be properly heard and understood. In over 250 recordings and thirty years of concertizing, listeners have been dazzled by Baroque music that has the tonal qualities, dynamics, and pitch that its composers intended. Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, Telemann, Vivaldi - as well as a host of composers less known to modern audiences - were re-tooled, literally, for modern ears accustomed to 19th-century romantic interpretations, by the use of "ancient" instruments and the rediscovery of Baroque performance style. In the process, the AAM became famous for its virtuosity and its superlative technique on instruments that call for special handling. The difference between a baroque violin or cello may only be apparent to the trained eye, but anyone who was sitting in Town Hall on Saturday night could see that a Baroque guitar or flute is a different animal from its modern cousin, and the theorbo - well, a pot-bellied strumming instrument with a six-foot neck has no modern equivalent at all. The organic, integrated sound Egarrs achieved with his ten colleagues relied upon the restraint of string players who could have easily drowned out the delicate strums and pizzicati of the theorbo and the fundamentally quiet pluck of the harpsichord - what Eggars referred to in his delightful pre-concert lecture as "the machine that goes 'ping.'" Of many highlights in the seven concerti the AAM played during Saturday's very generous concert, were the two for German flute - Telemann's Concerto in D major and Handel's Concerto Grosso in G Major Op.3. Rachel Brown, playing her ebony transverse German flute (it looks like a sideways recorder with no mouthpiece) displayed for the audience the contrast between Telemann's virtuosic and unfussy Polish style and Handel's lyrical, ornamented Italianate style. Not only did Ms. Brown's brilliant articulation allow us to hear the nuances of both styles (not an easy task on an instrument that requires as much speed and flexibility in the lips as in the fingers) but she played with Baroque decorum - that is, she didn't show off her top speed in meaningless runs but captured the excitement of brilliant passages without sacrificing coherence. Another treat was Handel's Sonata à 5 in B flat, featuring Pavlo Beznosiuk on the violin. While the familiar themes are always a joy to hear in any case, Beznosiuk played with such finesse that the "whiny" tone so often associated with Baroque violin repertoire was entirely absent. Instead we were given a honeyed richness - supported by equally clear articulation in the orchestra - that allowed every note to be fully heard in relationship to its harmonies. Playing at this level of clarity reminds you of how rarely concert-goers actually get to hear the vertical quality of music. Richard Egarr's own status as a premier harpsichord soloist was displayed in Bach's Concerto No. 7 in G minor which J.S. Bach wrote as a show-off piece for his sons to play in the Leipzig Collegium Musicum. I was struck by how simple the orchestral support music was, compared the glittering rapidity of the harpsichord - clearly the piece was written so that the community players could enjoy making music with the pro. As Egarr commented in his lecture, these exegetical aspects of composition allow you to "see the man in the music" because something in his thinking is exposed in the composition itself. Adding to the pleasure of the AAM's wonderful concert was listening in the company of The Early Music Guild's loyal subscribers - one of the most attentive and disciplined audiences in the city, if not the country. What a joy to sit in a full auditorium at Town Hall among people who listen so attentively, and who remain utterly silent between movements. When the level of respect in the audience matches the level of virtuosity on stage, the effect is magical. Saturday night with the Academy of Ancient Music was pure magic. Reviewer Sharon Cumberland standing in for Rod Parke at rod@sgn.org |
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