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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
November 11, 2005
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By Joseph Sargent
Philharmonia Baroque is in a festive mood these days. This month marks the 25th anniversary of the ensemble's founding, and for its November concert the group has programmed an all-Vivaldi lineup as an anniversary gift, a succession of concertos affording plentiful opportunities for ensemble members to share the solo spotlight. Friday's performance at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, under the buoyant leadership of music director Nicholas McGegan, was therefore as much a celebration as a concert, the stage entrance transformed into a revolving door for the numerous solo turns.
This is not to say that the evening was casual or informal in any way. To the contrary, because of (or perhaps despite) the similar repertoire, Philharmonia Baroque delivered a performance of consistently high quality marked by virtuosic flair and careful attention to the dramatic possibilities inherent in this music. Vivaldi is clearly an old standby for this ensemble, and any quibble that might be raised about the performances — the occasional lack of coordination, the odd moments of tentative playing — pale against the obvious comfort level the ensemble feels with this composer.
Vivaldi's fecundity in writing concertos is well known, with some 500 works to his credit. Programming an entire concert of this repertoire runs the risk of devolving into monotony, but Philharmonia Baroque wisely selected pieces that showcase some of Vivaldi's more innovative moments — unusual harmonic maneuvers, striking melodic gestures, crowd-pleasing dramatic build-ups to the finish.
Even with such differences, the program remained at its root a succession of similar works (there is some truth to the subversive claim that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto several hundred times). This is not to suggest that Philharmonia Baroque applied one single interpretive template to the program — each performance had its own shape, its own subtle gestures and dramatic peaks — but it does prompt the listener to appreciate particular standout moments emerging from the broader canvas. Fortunately, several such moments were in evidence here. The indomitable violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, for one, brought a big, luscious sound and fiery technical displays to the Concerto in C for violin and two celli, RV 561. In the outer movements she and her fellow soloists (the fine cellists Phoebe Carrai and Tanya Tomkins) effortlessly handled the virtuosic passages, but the inner-movement Largo seemed to showcase Blumenstock at her finest. No two notes sounded quite the same in her rendition of these fairly simple melodies, turning their modest character into a more profound musical statement. The slow movement of the Concerto in F for three violins, RV 551, provided another moment of pleasure. Here, violinist Joliane von Einem delivered the languid melodies with sweet simplicity, touched with a hint of melancholy. The surrounding movements were also well done, von Einem joining with Carla Moore and Katherine Kyme in a lush, vivid opening Allegro filled with soaring passagework and a vivacious closing Allegro. Moore and Kyme were especially impressive in delivering several bustling duet passages with acute intensity.
Among the wind players, oboist Marc Schachman and bassoonist Danny Bond supplied a solid, though occasionally tentative, performance of the Concerto in G for oboe and bassoon, RV 545. Schachman's rich, mellow tone was at times too gossamer for its own good, with notes occasionally struggling to speak. Schachman also teamed with oboist Gonzalo Ruiz in the Concerto in D for two oboes, RV 535, their frequent solo duets exquisite in their blended tone colors and flawless intonation. Ruiz, for his part, infused the Concerto in C for violin, organ, and oboe, RV 554, with an irrepressible sense of almost Romantic fervor, one that dovetailed surprisingly well with Lisa Weiss's soothing violin sound and the easy grace of Hanneke van Proosdij's organ playing. These three performers were of a single mind in the many passages where motives are passed among them. Hearing this trio hand off various melodic figures, their instrumental sonorities so different yet their phrasing and interpretation so similar, was a delight. Pairs of solo violinists were well-matched throughout the evening. In the concert opener, the Concerto in D minor for two violins and cello, RV 565, Anthony Martin and Sandra Schwarz blended their clear, pristine sounds masterfully, in a performance marked overall by crisp, taut playing, especially in the fugal opening Allegro. Blumenstock and Lisa Grodin, both with relatively voluminous tone qualities, were paired with the more delicate-sounding von Einem and Weiss to nice effect in the closing Concerto in E minor for four violins, RV 550. The many back-and-forth pairs of duets in this piece created especially striking dramatic contrasts, thanks to the shading of these contrasting sonorities.
(Joseph Sargent, a doctoral candidate in musicology at Stanford
University, is a professional writer and editor as well as a performer, conductor and scholar of early music.)
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