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FESTIVAL REVIEW
Stepping Back in Time June 6, 2002
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By Bruce Lamott
Prior to the advent of videotape, the transmission of choreographies to dancers from generation to generation has been a problematic affair. Attempts to recreate movement on paper through description and diagram date back to Arbeau in the 16th century, culminating in the work of Laban in the 1920s. Dances from the early 18th century were documented by a complex notation developed by Feuillet that accounted for movements of the feet, legs, and hands, as well as the elaborate floor patters traced by the dancers, usually one couple at a time. Musica Pacifica revivified this dance tradition at Berkeley's Hertz Hall in a charming program of "airs and dances" from Baroque France and England, entitled "Crossing the Channel." Accompanied by a small ensemble of first-rank musicians playing period instruments, their performance exemplifies the best in historical re-creations: a well-chosen and skillfully-executed program with a vitality which belies its scholarly underpinnings.
The instrumental music alone was worth the price of admission. The opening Concerto in E Minor by Boismortier was played with buoyant élan, with Judith Linsenberg, recorder, Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin, and Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe, trading solos in the manner of a classical vaudeville finale. Even cellist David Morris got into the act with a riff of the can-you-top-this variety. The beauty of this ensemble lies in the three-dimensional quality of their playing, a complex interplay of dynamic and rhythmic nuances. Ruiz gave the sinuous melody of a Couperin courante an especially elegant reading. The continuo section of Morris, Michael Eagan, archlute, and Charles Sherman, harpsichord, were especially vital to maintaining the phrase structure of the dance movements throughout the evening.
The Arcadian half of the program consisted of pastoral dances, introduced by a Muzette [sic] from the third of the Concerts Royaux by Couperin, a seamless transition to the terpsichorean treats to follow. Linda Tomko and Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière floated through a "Muszette a deux," choreographed by Louis-Guillaume Pécour, whose work dominated the program. There is great delicacy and subtlety in the movement of these social dances despite the restriction imposed by shoes with high heels and skirts overlaid with paniers. The latter provided a parachute effect in the hops and pliés of the lively gigue. Comic relief was provided by Edgar Tumak, whose turn as a country bumpkin was performed with clumsy bravado. It was quite a transformation when, in the second part of the program, Tumak donned the sun-suit of Louis XIV, whose court provided the cradle of classical ballet; his rendering of Apollo was noble and grand.
The theatrical dances of the second half were more complex and exuberant than the pastoral social dances — Jerome Robbins after Arthur Murray. The virtuosic rivalry between violin and recorder in a Handel sonata, deftly negotiated by Blumenstock and Linsenberg, was mirrored by the dancers in the works which followed. Unfortunately, awkwardly-delivered dialog detracted from the humor rather than enhancing it. Mime certainly played a part in theatrical dance of the period, and would have been a preferable alternative. Lacoursière conveyed the kaleidoscopic moods of a Lully passacaille, wearing a theatrical mask which added a sense of mystery to her expressive gestures. The growing intensity of the Vivaldi "La folia" variations gave both musicians and dancers a vehicle to display their impressive technique in a rousing finale. If performances such as Musica Pacifica and other headliners at the Berkeley Festival represent the finest fruits of the labors of generations of musicologists and musicians (and combinations thereof), a visit to the "fringe festival" performance by His Majestie's Musicians was a glimpse into How It All Began. An appreciative audience, including many Elder Hostel participants, was greeted by an impressive instrumentarium of medieval and renaissance instruments which came to life in the hands of the versatile trio of Lee McRae, Ralph Prince, and Alison Altstatt. Their program, "Our Spanish Heritage" was an entertaining and informative show-and-tell and sing-along of music from the 9th to the 17th centuries, narrated by Catherine and Alcides Rodriguez-Nieto. Clearly these folks are dedicated educators, evangelizing audiences of all ages to the cause of historical performance with captivating sounds of centuries past. How many of the hundreds of people attending the Berkeley Festival first began their interest in early music when some slightly eccentric but charismatic person held up an exotic instrument and said, "This is a shawm!"
(Bruce Lamott is choral director of the Philharmonia Chorale and the Carmel Bach Festival. He is also an instructor in music and Western Civilization at San Francisco University High School and conducts choral classes in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Extension Program.) ©2002 Bruce Lamott, all rights reserved |