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A Baroque Bouquet By Benjamin Korn Baroque lovers have benefited from a kind of revolution—a period-instrument revival that owes much to conductor and Baroque purist Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Begun in the early 1960s with Harnoncourt leading the fabled Concentus Musicus of Vienna in recordings of Bach and Telemann, the revolution has fostered the growth of many fine Baroque orchestras around the world. But more important, the aesthetic of period-instrument performances, which proved to be something of an acquired taste, has become more and more popular to the modern audience. The revolution that began in Vienna quickly spread to the United States and throughout Europe with the founding of groups dedicated to recreating music within the appropriate historical context. One of the leading ensembles hails from San Francisco. We have come to expect great things from San Francisco’s period-instrument Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Led by Nicholas McGegan, the orchestra has set the standard for performances of music by Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach on instruments of the period. McGegan is among the elite of early-music specialists, having gained international distinction in 1993, when he was awarded the Handel Prize. However, many early-music lovers may not realize that McGegan and his band of Baroque all-stars are reaffirming their commitment to the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Their exploration of French music will offer ample rewards for Baroque aficionados. In the latest offering, suites from the operas Platée and Dardanus (Conifer Classics 75605-51313-2), Rameau’s music accompanies librettos by Le Clerc de la Bruère (Dardanus) and J. Autreau (Platée). In the suite from Dardanus, the hero fights with a sea monster to protect Teucer, the king of Phrygia, who has promised his daughter Iphise to another. Platée tells the story of a nymph who is the victim of a cruel joke at the hands of the gods of Olympus: Mercury entices Jupiter to feign love for Platée so that Jupiter’s wife Juno may discover these lovers and realize the absurdity of the union of Platée and Jupiter. By using the entire spectrum of orchestral colors, Rameau delineates the absurd qualities in his music in a manner that is clever and often hilarious. McGegan and the Philharmonia bring out these intricacies with passion and the requisite sense of humor. In fact, the disc as a whole offers a rare glimpse into McGegan’s masterful control of the complex orchestral colors and textures in Rameau’s music. These suites burst with drama and musical invention, and McGegan infuses the collection with vitality and charm. The overture from Platée serves as a vivacious opening. The following "Air Pantomime" shows Philharmonia’s string sections to be at their finest, with tight ensemble playing that is always responsive to McGegan’s direction. The dynamic contrasts are beautifully rendered. Next we hear a short yet lively Contradanse, presented with perfect contributions from Philharmonia’s percussion section. The "Air pour des fous gais" shows off Rameau’s virtuoso violin writing as Philharmonia’s violin sections, led by concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock, negotiate fiendishly difficult scale passages with grace and precision. Throughout the suite, the orchestration is balanced admirably by McGegan. In particular, the sounds of the oboes and strings are carefully crafted into a sonorous and unified orchestral color. Rameau scores both suites for a large complement of players, consisting of 12 violins, six violas, four cellos, two basses, piccolos, flutes, oboes, and bassoons, and even a lone percussionist. The result is a stunning blend of textures rendered from a seemingly limitless palette of orchestral colors. The suite Dardanus begins with a joyous overture that is unmistakably French, with the familiar sharply dotted rhythms and a fugal section that differs greatly from the style popularized by Rameau’s contemporary Jean-Baptiste Lully. McGegan selects tempos that both move the score forward and allow the detail of the music to stand out. He also makes the most of the stark emotional contrasts in the movement "Tambourins," as Rameau juxtaposes passages of sheer joy with passages of dark intensity. Harpsichord players may recognize the "Air gai en rondeau" as coming from Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin. Formed in 1980 by Caroline Brown, the Hanover Band has joined the ranks of the elite early-music ensembles through regular touring throughout the U.K. and North America. Of particular interest is the ensemble’s discography of classical recordings of Haydn and Schubert symphonies, performed on instruments of the period. The group offers another welcome addition to the catalog with its recording of William Boyce’s The Secular Masque (ASV CD GAU 176). Unveiled in 1745 as a concert work, this gem is based on a text by John Dryden and contains a wealth of finely crafted arias and exhilarating choral writing that is reminiscent of Purcell. This performance, conducted by Graham Lea-Cox, features delightful contributions from a fine complement of singers, including the soprano Judith Howarth, mezzo-soprano Kathleen Kuhlmann, tenors Timothy Robinson and Charles Daniels, and basses Stephen Varcoe and David Thomas. Some of the most lovely, rich singing is rendered by Kuhlmann in the aria "Calms Appear When Storms Are Past." She sings with self-assuredness and grace. The vocal lines weave their way through the melodic material in the orchestra, and Kuhlmann is not afraid to share the limelight occasionally with a very fine yet anonymous wind section (actually, no one in the Hanover Band is acknowledged on this disc). The entire group provides sensitive accompaniment to the soloists in a manner that is never overdone and is always light and cleanly articulated. On the same disc, the Choir of New College, Oxford, prepared by Edward Higginbottom, delivers some of the most energetic yet delicate singing on record. In Take Her, the chorus blends admirably and enunciates Dryden’s text clearly and with maximum vigor. This is sumptuous choral singing that is never without nuance and always rich with emotion. The balance in the chorus is carefully maintained by Higginbottom amid Boyce’s delicate string writing. Throughout the recording, the Hanover Band’s string sections play with remarkable ensemble. Boyce’s score places strenuous demands on the players, requiring lightning-fast tremolo and rapid scale passages. However, they dispatch this material with ease and maximum esprit de corps. Not to be outdone, the Hanover’s brass sections also make a substantial contribution to this disk; the horn playing is astounding throughout. (Considering the complexity of performing with natural horns at Classical pitch, A=430, this is truly a feat.) This recording was prepared from parts kept in the Bodleian Library of Oxford that were originally marked by Boyce’s own musicians, so listening to this recording will give Baroque purists a glimpse into the musical conventions of Boyce’s time. Les Arts Florissants was founded in 1979 by the American-born French specialist William Christie and has been celebrated for its performances of French Baroque music. A frequent participant in the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Les Arts Florissants has garnered critical acclaim for performances of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, while Christie, a student of harpsichordist and Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick, was awarded the prestigious Legion of Honor in 1993 for his commitment to French music. Now the group has added to its discography of music by composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier with an album of instrumental suites and arias called Divertissements, Airs et Concerts, taken from selected stage works (Erato 3984-25485-2). Led by Christie, Les Arts Florissants offers an album that bursts with the joy of earthly pleasure. Charpentier’s music, with its finely crafted harmonies and delicate textures, is scored for a substantial complement of winds, including recorders, oboes, and bassoons. The result is an infinite variation of orchestral colors, with particularly fine contributions from the two recorder players, Sébastien Marq and Michelle Tellier. The forces employed for this recording in the string section are small, but Christie manages to draw from them a warm sound that is never forced. Violinists Hiro Kurosaki and Florence Malgoire blend as one instrument, producing sonorities that soar while always maintaining the requisite lightness of bow stroke and phrasing. Their tone meshes smoothly with the winds, perhaps because Charpentier does not write for brass. The strings produce a lovely sound with very little attack and beautiful overall definition that is never dry or brittle, and the ornamentation is tasteful, always complementary of the melodic material. The Chanson du Sylph is an air ornamented in the authentic Baroque style. The delightful Concert pour quatre parties de violes, composed most likely for Marie de Lorraine, Duchesse de Guise and first cousin to Louis XIV, is scored for four viols and theorbo continuo. The texture of the viols, supported by the guitar-like theorbo, is quite delicate. The singers are splendid, and Christie allows each soloist to bring out the wealth of melodic detail. These three new releases offer the best of what period-instrument performances can be. And for the classical-music lover who is new to early music, they will be rewarding introductions to one of the most important periods in the history of Western music.
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The
Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra.