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Choral Evensong Westminster Abbey
François Couperin, Jean-Henri D'Anglebert Attending the Westminster Abbey evensong was a strange experience for a critic; the Festival programme was not available there and few if any of the congregation walked across to the concert at St John's afterwards. The choir is a closed one and, seated in the transepts, we could not see choir, instrumental ensemble or the priest. The reverberation tended to generalise the music; I doubt if many would have departed thinking to explore Charpentier, whose death in 1704 was being marked. The solos taken by boys and men of the choir were less accomplished than expected from a major cathedral. The organist Andrew Reid let rip occasionally when he had a chance and made a grand noise. Used to hearing liturgical music more often on CD, the Abbey was not a good situation to address Charpentier's importance; is this the sound in which the motets etc were heard originally in France? Certainly it contrasted totally with the marvellous acoustics (and sight lines) of the baroque churches in Germany where we had recently attended the Musica Sacra International Festival at Marktoberdorf). Orazio Vecchio L'Amfiparnaso I Fagiolini has been touring its Orazio Vecchio staging for some years; we had seen it in Lucerne and recently at Trinity School of Music in Greenwich, where it went particularly well: * - - Most spectacular of all was I Fagiolini, who specialise in Italian renaissance music - - a morning selection of The Music of Theatre, their staged productions with masks, aimed to make Venetian madrigal comedies by Bianchieri & Vecchi accessible to modern audiences. Even for Italians, the Venetian dialect of the time is unintelligible, so our pleasure was enhanced by witty, scurrilous introductions written by Timothy Knapman. Developed over four years, this is a brilliant, completely original show, which should be captured on DVD - - (October 2002) http://classicalsource.com/db_control/db_features.php?id=1013 The capacity audience was obviously well pleased. We found ourselves thinking about the longueurs imposed by the repetitious music, tunes and phrases repeated so many times that they are drummed into your brain for ever and one performance is enough to make you think you 'know' it. We have a resistance to da capo arias, and extra ornamentation did not greatly help. My thoughts indeed strayed to ponder whether there is so much difference between this convention and those of pop songs, with their short ideas repeated for similar intended effect. And redundant repetition is experienced everywhere as a part of contemporary life; think about all those recorded announcements on tube trains and stations which are only relevant for a few 'customers'.... Unquestionably, the best of our four Lufthanza events was the American harpsichordist, Mitzi Meyerson's recital at Wallace Collection. There was a problem at first, the same Blissful to watch close by this fine performer, her posture relaxed, movements economical and flexible, the complex ornaments thrown off with complete ease and insouicance. This was an hour of sheer delight, which had the audience hanging on her every phrase of Couperin, notes inegales natural and unmannered, rubato akin to a Pachmann in Chopin, with rallentandos which in other hands might seem excessive. To end, the most brilliant of the music were Forqueray senior's viol pieces, transcribed by his son, and, to restore calm another lovely D'Anglebert prelude. This recital can be heard on BBC Radio 3 Early Music Show Concert next Saturday, without the repetitions of Lucie Skeaping's charming introductions which we all heard patiently after the recital, to ensure that not a fluffed phrase escapes over the air waves! Mitzi Meyerson has the CD release of four Couperin suites due this summer (Glossa) and meanwhile, in this favourite genre of mine, there are the five Forqueray suites on MD&G Records 6051101. |
that has forced Wimbledon to re-seat its Centre Court! The little golden chairs brought in for musical events there were crowded so closely that an ample neighbour obliged me sit across two of them, until a latecomer of similar ilk had to be accommodated, squashing me tight!
After D'Anglebert, I fled to unoccupied reserved seats, and found three of them in the front row!