Concert Review: Everything Old is New Again

Conductor Ton Koopman gives a history lesson at the Kennedy Center.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor, scholar and multi-instrumentalist Ton Koopman led the National Symphony Orchestra
this week at the Kennedy Center. Photo © 2017 Berlin Philharmonic for the digital concert hall.

It’s not every week that a symphony orchestra springs a trio of premieres on its subscription audience, but that's what happened on Friday morning at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. The ensemble was the National Symphony Orchestra and the conductor of said concerts was Ton Koopman. The Amsterdam-based organist, harpsichordist and scholar remains a legend in the field of period and historically informed performance. 

Concert Review: A Voyage Around the Father

The St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble presents Circling Bach. 
by Paul Pelkonen.

The St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble.
Photo by Carol Cohen © 2012 Orchestra of St. Luke's.

On Saturday afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble presented Circling Bach, a program that was devoted to the composers that were influences upon, and later, influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Today, Bach is thought of as the foundation of Western classical music. But the concept of him as musical progenitor is a 19th century one, rooted in the rediscovery of his works by Felix Mendelssohn and others. In truth, he was a human being, and a composer like any other, who produced a vast body of work under remarkable circumstances.

The first half of the concert was devoed to composers who may have influenced the development of Bach's style. It opened with three short works by Salomone Rossi, a Jewish composer in Renaissance Mantua. Rossi is almost forgotten today, but he was in the court of the Duke of Gonzaga (who helped found the first opera performances)and an associate of composer Claudio Monteverdi. 

More importantly, Rossi helped establish the of instrumental music where a treble part is written over bass harmonies--the very basis of modern homophony--or Western music. The pieces were played with galant style by the St. Luke's musicians, featuring unusual instruments like the cittern, a flat-backed, picked cousin of the mandolin.

The concert then moved to more familiar names. Antonio Vivaldi's influence on Bach was profound. Heard here: the A minor Cello Concerto. The solo part was taken with great energy by Myron Lutzke, whose low-toned playing was a fiery contrast with the tutti ensemble. A major work by Handel: the F Major Concerto Grosso  closed the first half, giving each of the skilled St. Luke's players a turn in the spotlight.

The second half was devoted to composers influenced by Bach. Fittingly, it started with his son Carl Philip Emanuel. C.P.E. Bach was feted in his lifetime as a better composer than his dad, but much of his work has faded from the repertory. The D minor Flute Concerto was transcribed for that instrument from an earlier work, for the royal lips of flute enthusiast Frederick the Great of Prussia. 

Elizabeth Mann may not be royalty, but she played this difficult concerto with grace and charm, hiding the tremendous technical requirements with experience and ability. Her playing in the slow movement was transportive, evoking the Potsdam court of Sans Souci. The fast movement that ends the piece was even more impressive.

The concert ended with another rarely heard name: Francesco Geminiani. Geminiani's work has sunk into obscurity, possibly because his career ended with a tenure in Dublin, Ireland, far from the heart of European musical life. Here, St. Luke's concertmaster Krista Bennion Feeney led a series of violin variations on La Follia, originally by composer Arcangelo Corelli. These variations crackled with robust energy, delivered with flair by the excellent players of the Chamber Ensemble.

Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen

Concert Review: Child Is Father...to the Symphony

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at TullyScope.

Sir Roger Norrington.

Johann Sebastian Bach had twenty children, if you don't count P.D.Q. Bach. Ten of them survived into adulthood. Of them, four of his sons grew up to be famous composers. Wednesday evening's concert at Alice Tully Hall offered argument for the reappraisal of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, whose work serves as an important bridge between the music of his father and the classical style as developed by Haydn and Mozart in the latter half of the 18th century.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is an acclaimed period performance ensemble from the United Kingdom, under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington. Sir Roger is now 77, and has had a long career leading period performance ensembles. Although he has met with wide criticism for his dry-toned, unromantic accounts of Beethoven, Wagner and even Mahler, these four symphonies and two concertos were ideally suited to his plain-spoken approach. They were played by the small orchestra (about two dozen, all told) with melodic drive and energy throughout.

The highlight of the performance was the C Major harpsichord concerto. It is difficult to play with lyricism on the harpsichord, but soloist Steven Devine overcame the limitations of that instrument. His cadenzas were played with beauty and skill, an impressive blend of dexterity and phrasing as he made the harpsichord sing.

C.P.E. Bach. Image © Naxos.

The same could not be said for the A Major cello concerto, with Richard Lester playing the solo part. Mr. Lester played with passion but hit some number of wrong notes in the first movement. Although he settled in and played the next two movements with singing tone and skilled bow-work, the errant opening undermined the whole performance.

When Haydn referred to Bach as the "father of us all", he was referring not to Johann Sebastianm but to C.P.E. Bach. This was proved by the four string symphonies on this program, which were written for a patron (Baron Gottfired von Swieten) who wanted Bach to push the envelope of instrumental writing farther than it had ever been pushed before. Using only strings and harpsichord, the younger Bach creates a riot of emotional color in the course of three movements each. Impressive, since each symphony is an average of just ten minutes in length.