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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
Rameau Celebrated, Revealed As A Young Turk
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By Kate van Orden
Early music has "grown up" quite a bit in the last decade, and one of the most delightful results of its widespread acceptance is a sophisticated audience. It is hard to imagine that fifteen years ago a program of three "Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts" by Jean-Philippe Rameau would have attracted the large crowd that packed into Hertz Hall last Wednesday, even given the blue-chip quality of performers Louise Carslake (traverso), Elizabeth Blumenstock (baroque violin), Lynn Tetenbaum (viola da gamba), and Charlene Brendler (harpsichord).
French baroque music is notoriously difficult for the uninitiated to appreciate. Even with Rameau's lighter touch--a touch amply evident in his "Platée" heard this summer--this is not obvious music. It downplays the forward-moving harmonies, decisive cadences, strong rhythms, and extrovert virtuosity of Italianate repertories. Instead, it favors balance, restraint, and exquisite detail. To these general predilections of the French,
Rameau brought a special talent for orchestration and a fine ear for instrumental color. The "Pièces de Clavecin," in particular, ask the audience to hear instruments in new ways: the flute and violin often take a back seat to the gamba and harpsichord (the clavecin), while the roles of these two instruments vastly exceed that of mere basso continuo.
The Italian world of flamboyant melody and supporting accompaniment is turned
on its head here with wide-ranging parts for the gamba--which plays the rival to both harpsichord and violin in "La Poplinière"--and for the harpsichord, the instrument Rameau places at the center of the consort. There were flashes of Vivaldian pyrotechnics in the Troisième Concert, the last piece on the program, but even there they stood in contrast to the incessantly circular melody of "La Timide" that caught listeners in a world of inner reflection calculated to show off the timbres of the flute. Louise Carslake's performance was enthralling and set the stage nicely for Elizabeth Blumenstock's fiery licks in the Rondeau and the ensemble's wild Tambourin.
If French baroque music does not always seem to arrive anywhere, then this was a performance that made you happy simply to be along for the ride. For the second movement of the Cinquième Concert the performers took a daring slow tempo that exposed its delicate melody and simple form as ruses in a piece that was actually about luxurious sonorities.
Elsewhere, the performers' extravagant interpretations threw the inner contrasts of movements such as "La Coulicam" into high relief. This movement, which opened the program, announced a brilliant ensemble that found every joke and profundity in Rameau. The performance celebrated the 315th anniversary of Rameau's birth, September 25th, by sweeping away any notion of the composer as an arch conservative and introducing a very appreciative audience to Rameau the young Turk.
(Kate van Orden is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at the
University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in early music and concertizes here and abroad on the baroque and classical bassoon.)
©1998 Kate van Orden, all rights reserved
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