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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW Brilliance and Sensitivity September 20, 2002
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By Kaneez Munjee
The San Francisco Early Music Society opened its 2002-03 season this
weekend with a spellbinding program entitled "Imported from Italy," by
San Francisco-based ensemble La Riche & Co. Comprising oboist Gonzalo
Ruiz, cellist Joanna Blendulf and harpsichordist Katherine Shao, La Riche
& Co was founded to explore the repertoire of the oboe's "golden age" —
the first half of the 18th century. This weekend's offering highlighted
this remarkable repertoire for the oboe, with its title and program both
reflecting works written by Italians or in an Italian style but
popularized throughout Europe by travelling musicians. The program was
rounded out by pieces for cello and for harpsichord, and by two cantatas
featuring guest soprano Twyla Whittaker.
The musical selections were united not just by the concert's theme of
music imported from Italy but also by the element of virtuosity to be
found in nearly every work. As many of the works were written for or by
stellar oboists of the 18th century (Giuseppe Sammartini, Alessandro
Besozzi and Giovanni Benedetto Platti), this virtuosity is not surprising,
and Ruiz more than ably sustained the caliber of his performance
throughout the afternoon. In particular, his playing of Vivaldi's Sonata
in g (RV 28), long thought to be written for violin, made it unthinkable
that Vivaldi had intended it for any instrument but oboe.
The works for the other performers proved demanding as well: Domenico
Scarlatti's cantata Qual pensier, qual ardire and his keyboard sonatas,
particularly K. 239, and Antonio Vivaldi's sonata for cello RV 43. These
latter pieces allowed the expressivity and talent of both Blendulf and
Shao to come to the fore, as they each took their solo turn.
Though the members of La Riche shone individually in these solo works, it was their ensemble playing that made the afternoon truly remarkable. The three seemed to share their sense of the timing, phrasing, pathos and liveliness of the music, and their response to each other was intuitive and immediate. From the first piece, Sammartini's Sonata IV in G (Op. 13), to the penultimate one, Platti's Sonata in c, these three captured the many different moods of the music with sensitivity, never missing a moment of perfect ensemble. Shao and Blendulf's tight continuo playing was the key to this unity, with Shao's central yet unobtrusive accompaniment hitting just the right balance. Whittaker smoothly fit herself into La Riche's musical ensemble in the final piece, Handel's cantata Mi palpita il cor. The two arias in the cantata were lovely duets for soprano and oboe, which again demanded a virtuosic performance from both. In this and her earlier piece, Whittaker gave dramatic and expressive performances, fulfilling the singer's fundamental role of conveying the message of the text. Her vocal quality was beautiful, if somewhat fuller than many early music sopranos, but she sang lightly enough to keep this from being overwhelming. She demonstrated a necessary technical agility for these pieces, yet the most difficult passages lacked a fluidity and freedom which would have made them elegant as well as impressive. Nonetheless, Whittaker's duets with Ruiz were a rich addition to the program, and Sunday's audience at St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco responded warmly to all the richness that she and La Riche had to offer.
(Kaneez Munjee is a singer, writer and editor. She is currently a doctoral
candidate in Musicology at Stanford University.)
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