Saturday April 27th, 2013 - The brilliant South African harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout (above, in a Marco Borggreve photo) teamed up with Ensemble Signal to present an intriguing programme at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. The event had been on my calendar for months and it lived up to expectations in every way.
Two hundred and sixty years separate the composition dates of the evening's opening and closing works. In this fusion of olde and new, Mr. Bezuidenhout and the Ensemble's conductor Brad Lubman shook hands across the centuries, commencing the performance with the wildly discordant and precursive opening statement of Jean-Fery Rebel's "Chaos" from LES ELEMENTS. The work, which dates from 1737, has a startling freshness, even when it subsides into a more expected Baroque feeling. Despite its forward-looking beginning, this piece also seems to look back to the late Renaissance and the composer explores all the musical facets with a keen imagination.
Two of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach were represented next by a pair of sinfonias, the first by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (in D major, composed in the 1770s) and the second by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (in D minor, dating from the 1740s). In the first, a complement of wind players join the strings and keyboard: horns, flutes, oboe and bassoon; the flutes remain to play the second sinfonia as well. The music is all delightful and superbly rendered, yet the work of the father which followed the intermission showed that the sons never quite attained the miraculous level of Johann Sebastian's perfection.
The harpsichord concerto in D-minor (1738) found Mr. Bezuidenhout at his most elegant in the gently rippling cadenzas, while the musicians of the Ensemble gave full-toned and scrupulously musical support. The harpsichordist's speed and accuracy were dazzling, and he played with a passion and intensity that drove out any notion of this music as being a dry technical exercise.
The harpsichord then vanished and six players (violins, viola, cello and double bass) ranged themselves in a semi-circle to tackle Michael Gordon's devilsihly delightful WEATHER ONE. Dating from 1997, this work was inspired by chaotic shifts in weather patterns; the aural wind machine starts cranking up in the bass range and soon all six musicians are bowing furiously thru the swirling motifs in a staggering, shifting skyscape of rhythmic and textural elements. As the twenty-minute work finally subsided into calm, the audience erupted in cheers for Mr. Lubman and his valiant players: this score seems a great test of both concentration and physical stamina for the musicians. The composer appeared onstage, embracing each of the players in turn. I was left to imagine what sort of dancework could be made to this fantastical piece; the counts alone would be a major challenge for the dancers.
As the Bach concerto was being played, I was recalling my childhood wish to play the harpsichord. My mother had bought me a recording entitled 'Said The Piano to The Harpsichord' and I played it til it wore out. I had been playing the piano by ear starting at a very young age, but once I heard this recording I started asking for a harpsichord; my parents had no idea of where or how to get one in our god-forsaken little town, but the sound of the instrument always brings back this memory. Amazingly, I found the ancient recording on YouTube.
The repertory of tonight's Baroque Vanguard concert:
Rebel: Chaos from Les Elements
C.P.E. Bach: Sinfonia in D Major, Wq 183
W.F. Bach: Sinfonia in D minor, F. 65
J.S. Bach: Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052
Michael Gordon: Weather One
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