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“Molto taste”
Historically informed baroque concert
Sunday, October 15, 2006
By Paul M. Somers
Mostly Music: Carter Brey (cello) with guests Tara Helen O’Connor (flute), Cheryl Staples (violin), Lily Francis (violin and viola), Mark Holloway (viola), David Grossman (bass), Robert Wolinsky (harpsichord). J. S. Bach: Sonata in G minor for viola da gamba, BWV 1029; Vivaldi: Flute concerto in D (“La giardellino”); Rameau: Concert II for two violins and harpsichord; J. S. Bach: Suite for flute, strings, and continuo in B minor. Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church, Maplewood.
J. S. Bach’s incomparable B minor Suite for flute, strings, and continuo closed Mostly Music’s season opener. The well-known flutist Tara Helen O’Connor was the featured soloist in a performance which was the fitting climax to the concert. All afternoon the music had been baroque played on modern instruments, but with what is called “historically informed performance.” There were many times when one would have been hard pressed to tell the difference between these players and those who habitually play *unaltered instruments with early music groups.
It was refreshing to hear O’Connor play the final “Badinerie” with musicality. It has become trendy to play it as fast a humanly possible, but she declined to follow in that path. As she put it, “Molto Allegro does not have to mean Molto bad taste.”
There in a nutshell was the difference in orientation for the whole concert. It was musical while being informed by a period style, rather than defined by period practice first and foremost.
The effect of such an attitude was to reach through the historical frame to draw a modern audience into the experience. This was old music which was at times greeted with cheers well beyond polite scholarly appreciation. When O’Connor played Vivaldi’s famed “La gardellino” concerto, which features the imitation of bird calls she used a very baroque sound on her modern flute and showed off an impressive technical command. But she also understood that the whole point of the piece then as now was to be a bird. Of course the audience understood: O’Connor had cut through the scholarly stuff and gone to the expressive heart of the matter.
Rameau, whose music reflected the sensibilities of the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was given a most affecting performance of his Concert II for two violins and harpsichord. Sheryl Staples and Lily Francis filled the music with well defined gesture and color, two of the distinguishing aspects of French music of all ages. Their conception of the four movements put one in mind of the French desire for drama to take place within one day, for here we had a gracious morning movement, followed in turn by daytime music which was elegant, an imitative Minuet and a Minuet II which was considerably slower as if night were upon us. Whether this was intentional or not, it was the mark of thoughtful artistry that there was such definition in the playing.
The least successful performance was the G minor sonata for gamba, played with great style and elegance on the modern cello by Carter Brey with the exemplary Robert Wolinsky at the harpsichord. But Brey overpowerd Wolinsky, who was heard clearly only in his few and far between solo moments. Of course, the sanctuary of Maplewood’s Morrow Memorial Methodist Church was filled to capacity, as it always is for Mostly Music. So even if Wolinsky and Brey had developed a fine tuned balance in the empty hall, all those warm bodies would doubtless have thrown their hard work into a cocked hat. We do not know how it went that evening in Westfield’s Temple Emanu-El.
The unsung heroes of the concert were violist Mark Holloway and bassist David Grossman. They were always solid, the former understanding quite clearly when he was subsidiary and when important, and the latter providing a firm and smooth linearity as the ruling continuo accompanist.
Ani Kavafian will return for the next concert on November 26.