The Salon Was Cold, but Not the Music

Boston Musical Intelligencer | February 7, 2010

by Mary Wallace Davidson

Musicians of the Old Post Road presented a concert, “From the Romantic Salon,” at both the First Parish in Wayland on February 5 and the Harvard Epworth Church in Cambridge on February 6. I heard the latter, but the Church’s heating system was not working, so we all sat huddled in our coats—the temperature was surely no more than 50° F (it was 21° F outside), with perceptible drafts. Nonetheless the performers, Olav Chris Henriksen, guitar, Suzanne Stumpf, flute, Sarah Darling, viola, and Daniel Ryan, cello, in spite of their red cheeks, miraculously managed to seem oblivious. The temperature was probably good for the instruments, but these weren’t just any old instruments.

The concert was built around Henriksen’s unaltered six-string guitar, ca. 1805, in the style of the Viennese school of Johann Georg Stauffer (1778-1853). (See the article, “Stalking the Oldest Six-String Guitar,” by Thomas F. Heck, which includes a picture of a Stauffer instrument of 1820.) It had once been owned by Henriksen’s great-great-grandfather in Norway, and handed down through generations of the family, “always to the one who learned to play on it.” It is comparatively small but has a rich resonance easily heard throughout the well-chosen space. Suzanne Stumpf’s wooden, multi-keyed, old system flute is also from Vienna at the same period: it has a sweet sound in its lower register, and bird-like fleetness in its upper one. Dan Ryan’s singing cello was made a century earlier (ca. 1700) in Belgium, and Sarah Darling’s viola almost two centuries later (in 1987) in Chicago (by William Whedbee).

The music for the first two works was found in the Henriksen family archives, rediscovered a year ago, a collection representing guitar music played in family circles in northern Europe from 1793 to 1850. The Rondo, op. 28, no. 2, by Francesco Molino (1775-1847),  first published in Leipzig in 1810,  served as a fine chance to introduce the guitar by itself in a simple, charming, stylishly performed piece by a master of the instrument. The Variations for flute and guitar, by the otherwise unknown I. A. Preis, is a similarly delightful work whose short sections are distinctly energetic. Another short work, for cello and guitar, the Nocturne no. 2 by Friedrich Burgmuller (1806-1874), is from a set of three originally published in 1840 by Richault in Paris, but reprinted by three publishers in the last 30 years. Marked Adagio cantibile, the piece is indeed an aria of great beauty for the cello, in baldly simple ABA form. Dan Ryan’s violoncello soared eloquently to Henriksen’s simple accompaniment.

The two longer works on the program were each in five movements, an assortment of simple sonata forms and dances. The first, just before intermission, was a Serenade in C Major for viola, cello and guitar (before 1808) by the violinist and composer Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840). The final movement, the Andantino (alla Polacca), was published as an appendix to the first edition in 1985. The other movement markings colorfully suggest their character: Andantino, amorosamente, Unione e con anima, and Canzonetta Genovese. One wished the group could have relaxed a bit more and “danced” these, but no doubt the temperature seriously discouraged this. The final work on the program is perhaps historically the most interesting: a Nocturne, op. 21, by the Viennese composer Wenzel Matiegka (1773-1830), originally for flute, viola, and guitar published by Artaria in Vienna in 1807, and arranged by Franz Schubert in 1814. He replaced the second Trio of the Menuetto movement (D. 96), and reapportioned the viola part between it and the cello (D. Anh. II/2). The third movement, Lento e patetico, was unfortunately marred in one of its most beautiful phrases in the cello by an accelerating bus outside. (Sanders Theatre has its fire engines!) In the final theme and seven variations, Schubert played with the textures by allowing both the guitar and the cello to take turns sitting one out, and also wrote new music for the cello. The manuscript in his hand was not discovered until 1918, and the exact relationship to Matiegka’s work not determined until a copy was located in 1931. The full story is told in great detail by Reinhard Van Hoorickx in Revue belge de musicologie (1977). It was the highlight of this musical evening.

Musicians of Old Post Road, Inc.. founded in 1989, do us a great service by bringing to our serious attention tasteful performances of well-chosen music from a genre that was widespread in both Europe and America before the age of the concert hall. And furthermore, their program notes are just as outstanding as their performances. Kudos!

 

Musicians of the Old Post Road Polish Mediterranean Gems

by Robert Myers, Classical Voice of New England http://www.cvneweng.org December, 2009.

Boston, MA, 19 December 2009.  The rustic worship hall in Boston’s Old South Church provided the acoustical setting on Saturday afternoon for the Musicians of the Old Post Road to present their concert entitled: “A Mediterranean Baroque Christmas.”  The ensemble is a period instrument chamber group comprised of accomplished performers based in the Boston area that prides itself on “rediscovering” works from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods that are seldom performed.  Indeed, the venues for their concerts are purposely chosen historic landmarks, contributing to the experience as fully anachronistic. 

The program began with the Sinfonia II for traverso, violin, viola, and continuo from Michel Corrette’s Six Symphonies en Quatuor contenant les plus beaux Nöels.  Corrette was an organist-composer who served as organist to Parisian collèges and French nobility alike, and whose compositional range includes ballets, organ concerti, and chamber vocal works, among many other genres.  Like many composers of his day, Corrette here sets popular Nöel tunes for instrumental ensemble, embracing both style and source material of countries outside his native France, lending his settings a many-hued texture.  The musicians performed expertly and accurately, and not without a decent helping of Corrette’s historically infamous wit.

Following the Nöel settings came Per il natale, a beautifully lyrical work for soprano and continuo by woman composer Antonia Bembo.  Taught by Francesco Cavalli, Bembo’s writing is a blend of French and Italian styles (as was her life).  Part of a larger work dedicated to Louis XIV, Per il natale is a beautifully introspective reflection on the Virgin Mary and her infant.  Barbara Kilduff’s voice gave life to this rarely-performed gem, a perfect marriage of composer and performer.  Following was Giusseppe Valentini’s  Sinfonia à tre, per il Santissimo Natale, termed his “Christmas Concerto.”  A contemporary of Vivaldi and Correlli, the younger composer was no doubt aware of the latter’s work of the same name, yet manages some innovation in his formal structure and rhythmic vigor.  The musicians demonstrated a superb ensemble, communicating beautifully across the ever-changing musical mosaic of Valentini’s concerto.

Following the intermission, the musicians performed Juan Francés de Iribarren’s A Belèn caminad pastorcillos.  A representation of the Spanish/Italian blend that synthesized Spanish song form with an incorporation of aria-recitative formats, this Italianate villancico is a grandly expressive work, belying Iribarren’s choral background in its remarkable crafting for the voice.  A work by landmark composer of Baroque flute writing, Nicolas Chédeville’s Sonata No. 4 for traverso and continuo from Il Pastor Fido followed.  His work is a remarkable example of lightheartedness, written primarily for enjoyment of the musical amateurs within the noble class.  This particular sonata was once attributed to Vivalidi, though recent scholarship has reassigned its authorship.  Suzanne Stumpf is a superb master of the traverso flute, an instrument renowned for its difficulty in tonal stability and intonation – a fact which discouraged many composers from writing for it as other instruments improved.  She has an unquestionable grasp of the requisite style, performing with elegance and ease.

The final piece on the program was Francesco Mancini’s Con pace si bella.  Mancini was a protégé of and the successor to Alessandro Scarlatti as Maestro di Cappella in the court of the viceroy of Naples.  During his time there, Mancini came to be esteemed for his sacred works, a shining example of which is this cantata.  The original manuscript for Con pace si bella exists, preserved at The British Library, and the work was presented on this program for the first time in New England.  A remarkably picturesque composition, it sets a descriptive libretto amidst myriad instrumental textures and effects.  Sometimes striking in its beauty, Mancini’s writing never failed in its aim to evoke imagery – both natural and divine.

The Musicians of the Old Post Road is a cleverly conceived and impeccably presented group of artists who render a great service in the realm of period performance.  Through their scholarship, programming, and enthusiasm, they shine a light on a corner of the repertoire that is too often neglected – a praiseworthy contribution to the Boston area concert calendar.

 

Carols across Europe, through time

By Matthew Guerrieri, Globe Correspondent  |  December 23, 2008

WORCESTER - It's ironic that the Musicians of the Old Post Road, in concert-by-concert transit of their namesake thoroughfare, were done in by a parking ban, but Mayor Menino's edict in the face of last Friday's storm forced cancellation of their Christmas concert at Emmanuel Church. (The concert is rescheduled at that locale for Dec. 27 at 3 p.m.) Snow notwithstanding, last Saturday's concert, farther down the path in Worcester, went off as planned.

The program itself traversed Baroque-era Europe for its holiday fare. Michel-Richard Delalande's "No??ls en Trio," a decorative medley of French carols, made a grand opening. Harpsichordist Michael Bahmann and cellist (and Old Post Road co-director) Daniel Ryan's richly embroidered continuo supported intricate blends of the sharpened focus of period violins (Sarah Darling and Abigail Karr) with the feathered edges of traverso flute (the group's other director, Suzanne Stumpf).

Michel Corrette's "Concerto No??l Suisse" shows a French composer proselytizing for the Baroque Italian novelty of the concerto via some borrowed Swiss carols. With Stumpf taking the lead, the music interrupted its own polished discourse with brief instrumental breaks and unison choruses, effecting an offhanded elegance.

Soprano Kristen Watson and mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore sang Louis-Nicolas Cl??rambault's modestly joyous "Hodie Christus natus est" with a paradigmatic early-music timbre: light, mostly without vibrato, prizing flexibility and clarity.

The pair scintillated in Francisco de Santiago's "Ay como flecha la ni??a Rayos," a sun-drenched villancico in celebration of the Virgin Mary, a 17th-century girl-power anthem of zigzag rhythms and shiny bounce. Rentz-Moore then tackled Georg Philip Telemann's cantata "Abscheuliche Tiefe des grossen Verderbens!" ("Loathsome depths of eternal corruption!"), a dark reminder of the contrasting bookend to Christ's birth, its heavy tread lashed by dotted rhythms and syncopations.

Each singer took on an extended work in the second half. Watson sang a "Gloria" ascribed to Handel in 2001, an attribution under healthy debate ever since. The music displays Handel's energy but not much of his melodic efficacy, lavishing coloratura sparkle that Watson dispatched with bright, clean precision, while revealing some vocal bloom in more middle registers.

Rentz-Moore, relying more on scrupulous projection of the sounds of the words than variation in vocal color to transmit the drama, showed the Gloria from the other side in Alessandro Scarlatti's "Cantata Pastorale."

A shepherd compares angelic radiance to a shift in the seasons, diminished-chord winter giving way to a spring of dulcet thirds in the violins. "My eyes delight," the final aria sings, "in seeing, in the middle of ice, the flower." Add a parking spot, and it's a lovely evening. 

 

Old Post Road musicians reveal Handel’s largeness of spirit

Worcester Telegram, April 2009

By John Zeugner Telegram & Gazette

With Handel the sun comes out and just stays out,” remarked guest violinist Sarah Darling during the nifty after-concert dessert reception at the First Unitarian Church Friday night.

What underlies the bounding mirth that seems to lope along underneath everything Handel wrote? A largeness of spirit, a bottled but always leaking saturnalian joy. And when that immense warmth is married to the meticulous, nuanced attention to detail characteristic of the Musicians of the Old Post Road, the result is always captivating.

For the final concert of its 20th season, the group settled on an all-Handel program: two cantatas and three orchestral pieces. The opening Sonata in G used seven musicians: ensemble veterans, Daniel Ryan, cello, Suzanne Stumpf, traverso, Michael Bahmann, harpsichord; violinists Darling and Abigail Karr, violist Marcia Cassidy, and Jane Hershey, viola da gamba. The crisp, opening allegro attacks displayed the signature control of the group, yielding almost immediately to the beguiling lilt that permeates Handel.

In the Sonata’s second movement, Stumpf’s always fluent traverso sound floated above the neatly articulated violin and cello lines, flowing into the sweet longing of the Passacallie, then a spirited Gigue, and finally a rousing Minuett restoring relentless lilt to the melody-rich offering.

The first cantata, “Mi palpita il cor,” featured the night’s lone voice soloist, mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore, extolling that familiar anguish and exaltation of the frustrated lover. The second aria romped through a lovely dialogue between Rentz-Moore’s voice and Stumpf’s equally gorgeous traverso playing. Rentz-Moore’s voice seems perfect for Handel, weighty, and grounded with periodic glimpses of coloratura leaps. At the end the blend of voice, cello, harpsichord and traverso achieved a beguiling rightness.

The final offering of the first half was the familiar Opus 3 Concerto Grosso No. 3 in G, allowing again for Stumpf to infuse a rasp beyond usual flute clarity in her traverso.

The fugue progressions of the final movement sparkled.

After the intermission, Bahmann’s controlled, neatly articulated mastery of the harpsichord literally pulled together the concerto for his instrument and two recorders (John Tyson joined Stumpf).

The concert concluded with Handel’s cantata “Tra le Fiamme,” a marvelous meditation on the Icarus disaster. Rentz-Moore returned, in even stronger voice. She soared, buttressed in the melodic lines by dazzling viola da gamba playing by Jane Hershey.

 

Old Post Road brilliant in baroque holiday program

December 22, 2008

By John Zeugner Telegram & Gazette reviewer

WORCESTER— Improbably enough, the Musicians of the Old Post Road may have pointed the way toward coping with the new American reality of a shattered and mangled economy.

Relying on only arm, finger, and lung power, rejecting the manufactured in favor of the hand-crafted, seeking the organic over the engineered — animal gut over etiolated steel, the baroque past over the media-symphonic present — these dedicated artists seem harbingers of the “retro reality” we’ve inherited.

The Telemann cantata that closed the first half of the concert Saturday night at Trinity Lutheran Church contained the perfect commentary (translated from the German text) on the misery of the world, especially in power-deprived, storm-battered Central Massachusetts: “Destructive perversity of the stubborn world,” sang mezzo soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore in superb voice, with meltingly pure tones, “it batters, it crashes, it stumbles and falls.” Storm-stumbling canceled their concert in Boston Friday night and doubtless reduced the audience in Worcester, but that smaller crowd was rewarded with a unique, flawlessly executed program of little-known baroque Christmas music.

The concert opened with several instrumental “noels” composed for Paris’ “Christmas Spirituel” during Louis XIV’s time by one of that king’s main music minions, Michel-Richard Delalande. After a bit of a lengthy tuneup —gut strings are devilishly difficult to align — string players Sarah Darling (violin and viola), Abigail Karr (violin) and Daniel Ryan (cello) were joined by Suzanne Stumpf (traverso) and Michael Bahmann (harpsichord) for a spirited reading of Delalande’s works. There was an almost one-note-like sound fusion of flute and violin in the middle movements, and the whole group delightedly lilted the final minuet. A joyous rhythmic buoyancy seems emblematic of the Post Road ensemble, and was most evident again in the opening and closing movements of Michel Corrette’s “Concerto Noel Suisse” in the second half.

Suzanne Stumpf’s traverso playing was as always spot-on and commanding.

Other seldom-heard delights of this concert included Antonio Scarlatti’s “Cantata Pastorale,” a motet by Louis-Nicolas Clerambault, and another Spanish “villancico” — 17th-century trendy, low-brow, popular music in Spain — by Francisco de Santiago. Increasingly “villancico” have become signature pieces for the Post Roaders.

With typically meticulous forethought, the program seemed aimed to peak with the final composition, a recently discovered liturgical “Gloria,” perhaps by G. F. Handel. As was underscored so brilliantly last year, the Musicians of the Old Post Road have a particular affinity for Handel’s music (even if perhaps not by Handel). Soprano Kristen Watson thrilled the audience with her rendering of this splendid music, easily sweeping them to their feet at the end.

It was a powerful, pleasing foretaste of the Musicians of the Old Post Road’s much anticipated, season-ending concert, March 27, 2009, at the First Unitarian Church, “In Celebration of Handel.” Doubtless, by then we will all be even more open to the second installment of the Musicians of the Old Post Road’s life lessons to be learned in the limited, circumscribed, new American reality.