San Francisco Classical Voice

This was my first live encounter with soprano Monoyios, although I've long admired her recordings, especially those with John Eliot Gardiner. She's possessed of a crystal pure lyric soprano, elegant musicianship and technique to maneuver complex trills and embellishments with casual ease. With the instrumental backing of one player per part, the ABS policy, and in the superb acoustics of Calvary Presbyterian, Monoyios' sheer artistry was palpable.

Both wind soloists did splendidly, displaying professional scholarship at its best. Nagy had some trouble keeping up with the Concerto's finale, as virtually all oboists do. It's a problem of breathing during very long legato lines never intended for a wind player. Otherwise, Nagy proved a master of both instruments, perfect in intonation, rhythmically astute and in observance of dynamics.

I have yet to be convinced that Bach's A Major Concerto belongs to the oboe d'amore. It's isn't wind writing, and the fact that the range fits oboe d'amore's ignores one little thing: the transposition factor. When shifting his music to another instrument, Bach changed keys. The A Minor Violin Concerto was thus shifted to G Minor for a harpsichord Concerto, the E Major Violin Concerto to a D major for Harpsichord. When movements of the Brandenburg Concerto were recycled into vocal works, as in the opening chorus of Cantata 207a (D Major), a rewrite of the third movement of Brandenburg No. 1 (F Major), the shifts were wider — and there are other such examples.

Bach was, if anything, consistent. So if the A Major Harpsichord Concerto was shifted to keyboard from an early oboe work — the oboe version wasn't in A Major. That granted, the whole rationale behind the transcription collapses. Of course, there really isn't much else for an oboe d'amore soloist. One ought to be tolerant, all the while admitting that it ain't necessarily so.

Flutist Guitry managed to combine lyrical warmth with a light touch for the B minor Suite. No other composer ever got so much out of B Minor as Bach. It's normally for tragic expression, and Bach managed that. But he also had this uncanny knack of making B Minor sound rather joyous, as in this Suite, or even wildly heroic — the big Prelude and Fugue for organ, BWV 544. Guitry took moderate tempos in some of the dances that seemed a bit too reverential (the Bourrée for instance). But on the whole this was a very fine rendering, handsomely accompanied by Thomas and his terrific band.

The season finale of the American Bach Soloists will be performances of the B minor Mass, April 25-27, one performance each in Belvedere, Berkeley and San Francisco on the successive dates.