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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
A Few Extra Measures January 23, 2002
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By Nikki Buechler
Most people would agree that music, alone, is sufficient in a chamber orchestra performance; there doesn't need to be anything else. Most performances cohere to this idea, avoiding prominent deviation from the stereotypical concert. Toronto's baroque orchestra Tafelmusik, however, went beyond the expected on Wednesday, January 23rd at Dinkenspiel Auditorium, Stanford University with some unconventional and clever embellishments on the traditional concert.
The concert was entitled 'The Grand Tour: Music from Venice, Paris, London, Rome and Germany'. Although 'Baroque music from Europe' might not be in itself a departure from the expected, the selection and presentation of music according to geographical location gave the concert a coherent theme. The assortment of pieces provided a satisfying level of variety in terms of genre and composer. The audience was able to compare and contrast inherent stylistic differences between pieces.
The program also allowed the ensemble the opportunity to communicate distinctions in performance practice techniques according to genre, location and composer. While differences were often subtle, and in some cases perhaps could have been more emphatically emphasized, they were likely avoiding the risk of distasteful or awkward exaggeration of affects. Alternatively, they may have been concerned about potential criticism over a controversial interpretation, although if you can trust anyone to have done homework on how an oboe concerto by Albinoni might have been performed in 1722, it would be Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik's concertmaster and music director. Still, credit in this instance should also go to the oboists, John Abberger and Marco Cera, who produced beautiful and well-matched sounds on their original instruments.
Apart from thoughtful programming, the most unusual feature of this concert was the inclusion of a narrator, Blair Williams. A narrator at a baroque performance has the potential to be not only superfluous, but a detriment, an incongruous interference. In fact, within seconds of his arrival onstage, he had made himself a most unwelcome addition. Everything started out beautifully, the orchestra playing The King of Denmark's Galiard by John Dowland of London. Williams appeared onstage, loudly interrupting a charming and delightful piece. This was not the way to introduce an unconventional element to a performance. Between the many items on the program came interjections by the narrator. However, despite an objectionable first appearance, he redeemed himself with humorous outbursts. With an unspecific English accent that migrated to Scottish where appropriate, he read correspondences from eighteenth-century sources. Many of the readings involved dialogue between an anxious parent and a young traveler, the latter describing, for example, his experiences in a particular city, its culture and a lascivious encounter with a woman twenty years his senior. It was anecdotal, not particularly informative or educational, but very, very witty. It was refreshing to see the members of Tafelmusik laughing with the audience at the narrator's jokes; it suggested they hadn't heard them enough to be bored. The players all seemed enthusiastic about their experience onstage. All were deeply committed to their performance and played as if still on honeymoon with the music. The continuo section, comprising the low instruments and harpsichord, had impeccable unity, which was mirrored by the precision of the upper strings and winds.
Lully's Suite from Acis and Galatée was charming and dignified, the final allegro from Vivaldi's Concerto for Strings in G minor, RV 157, lively and dramatic. Only one piece, Leonardo Leo's Concerto for violoncello in F Minor, seemed to be out of place on the program that otherwise encompassed the most famous of baroque composers. It is a gratuitously difficult, repetitive and formulaic piece, and cellist Christina Mahler coped admirably with its technical difficulty. Other than being the sole representative from Naples, however, the piece didn't add anything to the concert as a whole. Tafelmusik performed with charisma and vitality. Baroque music sparkles under their expert touch, and the performance was all the more entertaining because of their innovation with the narrator. It is refreshing to see an orchestra wiling to take a risk with something new for the sake of entertainment, and it worked for them — it was not a mask for deficiencies elsewhere in the program. They had the music part totally covered, which meant they could go for something extra, even though the music alone, in the hands of these players, would have been enough for a fabulous concert. (Nikki Buechler is a PhD student at the music department at Stanford University. She has a Master's degree from St Catherine's College, Oxford, and spent 5 years working as a viola player in chamber groups, orchestras and as an occasional soloist in London, England.) ©2002 Nikki Buechler, all rights reserved |