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EARLY MUSIC
January 23, 2004
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By Rebekah Ahrendt
What constitutes "early music" these days? To judge by American Baroque's recital Friday at First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, it's not necessarily your old Bach and Handel anymore. Though the concert was presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society, more than half of the music on the program was composed within the last ten years, including two pieces by ensemble member Roy Whelden. The concert was titled "Uncommon Grounds," and anchored by pieces composed over ground basses; but some of the grounds hailed from periods a lot nearer than the Baroque.
The concert opened with a suite from Rameau's opera Naïs, which gave the performers ample opportunity to demonstrate early on their complete mastery of their instruments. Violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock played with her accustomed flair and lovely tone; oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz spun out lyricism after lyricism; and flautist Stephen Schultz proved that wooden flutes have every bit as much power and grace as metal ones. The viola parts were amply covered by Roy Whelden on viola da gamba; and Joanna Blendulf on cello and Katherine Shao on harpsichord provided a steady and interesting continuo.
The second half of the program included a second suite from Naïs as well as Marais' Sonnerie de Ste. Geneviève du Mont. This famous piece is constructed on an obsessively repeating three-note bass line, designed to mimic the bells at the church of St. Genevieve in Paris. The trio of Whelden, Blumenstock and Shao expressed the intensity of the piece well. And that was it for the "early music" on this program.
All the rest was "new music for old instruments." Roy Whelden's Loose Canons (after J.S. Bach) melded fourteen incomplete canons of Bach with an American minimalist sensibility to good effect. It was like wandering through an unfamiliar landscape and unexpectedly running into old friends periodically. Whelden drew on his intimate knowledge of the sonoric possibilities of the various early instruments to great effect. So did Marc Mellits in his Eleven Miniatures for Baroque Ensemble. Each mini-movement explored a sound-world built on a different theme, from the frenzied repetition of "Carpal Tunnel" to the longing "Elegy for Lefty" (as in Lefty Frizell, the old cowboy singer). The elegy provided a very nice opportunity for cellist Blendulf to shine, in conjunction with flute and violin. Perhaps the greatest problem a composer faces when writing a piece for old instruments is how to justify the use of those instruments as opposed to modern ones. Though Carl Stone's Hai-Ky was commissioned by American Baroque, it sounded as if it could have been played by any ensemble including flute, oboe, viola, violin and keyboard. There was nothing in the piece that seemed to call specifically for the special instruments it was written for; and though American Baroque played it well, I didn't find the music particularly inspiring or idiomatic. Whelden's She's So Heavy (after Lennon-McCartney) was another story entirely. Taking his inspiration from the awesome ostinato bass of the Beatles' "She's So Heavy," Whelden created a tour-de-force for the bass section of the ensemble. The piece rocks. From the funky fugue to the slap bass effects in the cello, from the whining of the violin to the yelping of the oboe, it was a hoot, and the enthusiastic audience response was entirely deserved. With such a fun and exciting close, it was almost possible to forget that the program was a little over-long and sometimes monotonous. It's only too bad that some of the audience missed the ending. With an 8 p.m. start after a day of work, and a first half that was an hour long, some decided to go home at the intermission. At least, I hope it was tiredness. With so many new works on the program, the dedicated early-music audience which SFEMS usually attracts may not have gotten what they expected. Which brings us back to the question I posed at the beginning of this review: what does constitute "early music" in 2004? Is it the age of the music, or is it the equipment used to play it? (Rebekah Ahrendt holds the Artist's Diploma in viola da gamba and historical performance practice from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (NL). Currently, she is a graduate student in historical musicology at the University of California, Berkeley.) ©2004 Rebekah Ahrendt, all rights reserved |
