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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
November 22, 2003
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By Anna Carol Dudley
In 1973 Reinhard Goebel and friends founded a chamber ensemble called
Musica Antiqua Köln - Köln being the name of their city, which some of us
call Cologne, and Musica Antiqua being Latin for what we have come to call
Early Music. They unearthed many undeservedly obscure compositions from
the German Baroque era and gave them committed, exciting performances on
early instruments. Ten years later they expanded into a chamber orchestra,
and this year they are celebrating their 30th anniversary by adding two
guest singers and touring with Italian repertoire.
Saturday's concert in the First Congregational Church of Berkeley began
with the announcement that alto Nathalie Stutzmann would not be singing
Pergolesi's Salve Regina as anticipated. The omission resulted in a first
half less balanced than planned between instrumental and vocal music of the
late 17th and early 18th centuries. The orchestra played three sinfonias
by Caldara and Albinoni, each with short movements alternating between fast
and slow. The performance was brisk, lively, accurate and lacking in
dynamic contrast or breathing space between and within movements.
Predictable ritards at the end of each movement further contributed to a
formulaic feeling.
On the whole, I prefer Musica Antiqua Köln's previous
incarnation as a chamber ensemble. This concert invited comparison with
the Bay Area's Philharmonia Baroque orchestra, which performed in the same
Berkeley venue two weeks ago and even played the same Vivaldi motet, In
furore giustissimjae irae. I had to go back to the earlier program to be
sure it was the same motet, so different was the performance. The soprano
soloist with Musica Antique Köln was Nancy Argenta, who brought a bright
presence to fast passagework and a sensitive lyricism to more expressive
moments. The violins, doubling her in the first movement, overplayed when
she was in her lower range in the middle section. The strings matched her
exuberance in coloratura passages, as in the closing "Alleluia," but did
not respond to subtleties of phrasing and dynamic shading with which she
treated the text elsewhere.
After intermission, the music moved squarely into the 18th century with Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. The text (of which there are many musical settings) is focussed on Mary as she stands, deep in grief, watching her son die on the cross. Stutzmann joined Argenta for this piece. The two singers are very different in sound, style and appearance. For instance, Argenta stands still, and breaks your heart with desolate sound and a moving decrescendo in "moriendo desolatum dum emisit spiritum" ("dying, forsaken, expiring"). Stutzmann, possessed of a sumptuous voice, crouches, bobs and weaves. Her sound is thrilling, and her expressive repertoire is of a broad-brushed operatic sort. She sounds the note of passion and pain in "Fac me plagis vulnerari, crucem hac inebriari" ("Let me share the stripes, the cross"). Different as they are, they came together beautifully in the many duets, their flawless intonation underlining points of dissonance and their shared feeling for the text building up the phrases. The orchestra supported them well in the more passionate parts and with scrupulous impartiality drowned out each in the lower part of her range. Mr. Goebel had announced that an encore would be offered to make up for the hole in the first half, and he made good on his promise at the end by reducing his instrumental forces from 13 to 8 and playing a charming pavane by one Louis Constantin, "La Pacifique," charmingly. Again, I was transported back to the incarnation of Musica Antiqua Köln that I prefer.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University [lecturer emerita] and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
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Musica Antiqua Köln
Nathalie Stutzmann 
Nancy Argenta