A Baroque Christmas in Sacramento

Last night at SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center in Sacramento we attended a lovely small orchestra concert with Margaret Batjer, conductor and violin.  I am calling these types of concerts twofers.  That means you get a soloist and a conductor for the price of one.  It's becoming very popular.  In fact the previous Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera concert was also a twofer.   Margaret's experience is as a concert mistress, and that's where she spent most of her time in the concert.  Only in the Bach violin concerto did she stand in front of the orchestra.  The rest of the time she sat in concert master's place on a raised platform where everyone could easily see her.

BACH Violin Concerto in A minor 

Allegro 
Andante 
Allegro assai

HAYDN Symphony No. 8 in G major "Le soir"

Allegro molt
Andant
Minuetto
La tempesta: Presto

Since it was in fact Haydn who invented the four movement symphony format, I reminded my friends that the other guys were not familiar with this form.  Corelli was even earlier than Bach.

 CORELLI Concerto Grosso in G minor.  "Christmas Concerto"

I. Vivace – Grave 
II. Allegro
III. Adagio - Allegro – Adagio
IV. Vivace
V. Allegro 

A concerto grosso involves a small ensemble, this time a string quartet, that alternates with the full orchestra.

BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major

I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Presto

The Brandenburg Concertos are also concerti grossi.  The small ensemble in this particular case is a violin and two flutes.  The two flutists were not named, but I am going to assume they were Matthew Krejci and Elizabeth Coronati.

Our complaints about the previous concert seemed not to apply here.  We were quite happy with the acoustics.  Our guest violinist seemed to play significantly louder than the other string players.  We loved both the chosen repertoire and the manner in which it was played.

The Four Seasons in Sacramento

Gioachino Rossini – Italiana in Algeri Overture
Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 101, “Clock”
Antonio Vivaldi – “The Four Seasons”
Andrés Cárdenes, conductor and violin

This is the program for last night's performance by the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera.  Andrés Cárdenes guested last season in a program that featured him playing a Mozart violin concerto.  In the first half of our program the orchestra included winds and timpani and a podium for Rossini and Haydn.  For the Vivaldi all the winds disappeared and the timpani were replaced by a harpsichord.  The podium also disappeared and was replaced by a music stand.

The Creation

I like more and more Nicholas McGegan and his Philharmonia Baroque orchestra. This picture is pretty old, but I wanted one of him conducting, in case I wanted to enter him in the sexiest conductors contest. He is associated with the Philharmonia Chorale, headed by Bruce Lamott, and together they have produced Haydn's The Creation.

Remember when I said I wished I was listening to McGegan? No, I suppose I'm the only one who remembers everything I say. I was right. This was terrific--lively and fun.

With three excellent soloists: Dominique Labelle as the soprano Gabriel, and later as Eve, tenor Thomas Cooley as Uriel, and baritone Philip Cutlip, previously seen at Glimmerglass, as Raphael and Adam. These are high quality professional singers, people that the SF Symphony could also afford to hire. [Sorry. I'm still in shock over the pathetic B minor mass.]

At this point in his life, in his sixties and retired from Esterhazy, Haydn spent time in London, absorbed the English taste for oratorio and apparently also the English feeling for singers. Or is that McGegan's taste I'm hearing?

And the chorus, a mere three not very long rows of singers, managed a full and beautiful sound.

Thumbs up.

Likes and dislikes

The horn has a list of his dislikes. He lists Vivaldi, Gounod and Poulenc.

Vivaldi's 10,000 concertos were mostly written for his orphans to play. He didn't spend a lot of time with them. Picture an orchestra of young girls. Mostly it's the same four concertos that get played over and over--often as though they were one piece.

My own personal dislike is for anything that usually plays on classical music radio stations, including Vivaldi. The objective seems to be to bore you to death.

The fact that our concept of Vivaldi is of such boring music was the reason I was so shocked when I attended Cecilia Bartoli's Vivaldi concert. The variety was astounding. Who knew? I blame the programming choices of orchestras and radio stations for this perception of Vivaldi.

As for the other two, it is not unusual for people to dislike the French. I doubt if he likes Josephine Baker either. (Who is enjoying a revival. I saw two records of her at R2 the other day.) I have always adored Poulenc's songs which are completely French. If you were brought up on the three B's, your head may never get around French music.

Post Script
I have decided that it isn't fair for me to leave out my own likes and dislikes. I generally assume that if I don't like someone it is probably my fault. Or the performer's.

When I lived in Bloomington, Indiana, they had a fabulous classical music radio station affiliated with the university that played lots of interesting music. I particularly liked the Ether Game program where they played obscure pieces and people phoned in the answers. Someone always knew the answer. I remember recognizing a Haydn piece for baryton--you simply knew that had to be what a baryton sounded like--but they wanted to know the exact piece. That level of trivia I simply cannot manage.


I would be listening, and I would say to myself, "Whoever wrote it, that is really trash." It always turned out to be Sibelius.

Baltimore comes to Frederick

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra came to Frederick last night. Marin Alsop did not come. Conducting honors fell to Roberto Minczuk who currently conducts the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquestra Sinfonica Brasiliera in Rio de Janeiro, an interesting pair of assignments.

He conducted Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings without a score and without a baton. He conducted Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D Major with a score, but still without a baton. He conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 without a score but WITH a baton. Hmm. Is he showing off? Is he easily bored? We’re curious. The entire concert went well, so I can’t actually complain.

The most interesting piece was the cello concerto, primarily due to the playing of Ilya Finkelshteyn, the principal cello of the BSO. The solo part is full of double stops and high pitches, all passionately played. The audience stood up for this, and Mr. Finkelshteyn gave the orchestra an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Mozart and Haydn

There were a number of churches around London offering concerts last night, but this one titled "Couple or Clash? St John's Smith Square" is the one that attracted my attention because the "Smith Square" part meant I could figure out where it was and the "Couple or Clash?" part meant that they were performing choral pieces by Mozart and Haydn. The advertised truism is that Mozart would upstage Haydn. This did not happen. Haydn's Teresienmesse was the hit of the evening.

If you could call it that. It was an odd experience that could lead one to caution about concert attendance. The London Orpheus Choir did a decent job with the Haydn mass and with the Vesperae Solennes de Confescore of Mozart which opened the program. This includes the Mozart hit tune "Laudate Dominum" sung capably by Jacqueline Pischorn, soprano. This number was the only thing on the program that could be called a vocal solo--everything else was in the symphonic style where the soloists appear as a quartet. They deserve having their names mentioned: Margaret Rapacioli, alto, Austin Prunell-Friend, tenor and Leslie MacLeod-Miller, bass. The conducting by James Gaddarn was also quite respectable. I would like to hear the mezzo again in another context--let us say opera.

So what is the controversy? The entire evening was accompanied by the London Orpheus Orchestra, and more out of tune violins I can only recall from my days as a substitute teacher. The Haydn mass was the most effective because the chorus and soloists more effectively distracted the attention from the violins. It was tooth grindingly horrible.

Missa Solemnis

I went to see the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven at the Barbican on Tuesday. This was my second try. I went on Sunday, too, but arrived just as the downbeat could be heard through the doors, and they wouldn’t let me in. The work is too short for an intermission. It was raining and dreadful that night. The Barbican tube station was closed. Even the San Francisco Opera isn’t that rough. I have arrived late and been allowed to stand in the back. Sigh. I treated myself to a cab ride back. I was interested enough to try again.

The Barbican is an odd place in the center of a forest of high rise apartments. The cab driver said thousands of people lived there, but the streets are barren and empty, with no people, no shops, no restaurants, just cold buildings. There is a yellow line on the pavement leading you from the tube station to the theater complex. The confusion doesn’t stop there. Once inside there are ramps leading up and down with many dead ends. To reach the lift requires going outside. There are two ticket places on two different levels. Once you are inside the hall it’s actually quite symmetrical and organized, with good sight lines and acoustics. My girls have both sung here this year and have their pictures in the lobby.

There were odd statements in the program notes. It called this an unfamiliar text, this most composed of all texts. Though I have never studied Latin and my own religious background is quite different, I know what they are saying most of the time because I have sung the same texts in Latin and English, in chant, in both Catholic and Episcopal services, in concerts, in all imaginable guises, and find them part of my mental landscape. In a secular world they are unknown.

This is what is called a symphonic mass, a form invented by Haydn, I think, where the composer moves from the alternating chorus movement with aria movement format of the Baroque to one where the vocal soloists sing in the same movements as the chorus and orchestra. Mozart composed works in both styles. Beethoven doesn't break up the sections and even does the entire credo as a single movement.

Robert Shaw had an arrangement of the Bach B minor Mass where he tried to turn it into a symphonic mass by taking some of the choral passages and assigning them to soloists. I don’t think there is any authenticity to this, but it changed the perceived texture considerably. The Messe in H Moll was an abstraction for Bach like Die Kunst der Fuge. I digress.

In a real sung mass they work quickly through the wordy parts. Beethoven will often get through the entire text before turning back to develop the themes and words that most interest him. He repeats much like in a symphony. His treatment is unusual.

The program notes focused on what each section would have meant to Beethoven, which of course we don’t know. I prefer not to speculate. Beethoven considered this his greatest work, but there are weak sections. He does fairly well with the long text of the credo. He emphasized “Et vitam ventura saeculi,” the life of the world to come, by repeating it several times.

In a requiem mass it is possible to choose ones ending. The composer can end loud with the repeat of the dies irae theme or go soft like Faure with the text at the graveside. In a true mass it ends with “grant us peace,” the text immediately before communion. It is a soft ending and robs Beethoven of his big finish. As a dramatic arc, the ninth symphony works better. The dramatic peak of the Missa Solemnis is in the Gloria, a thrilling piece. The intensity is overwhelming.

There should always be a special bow for the sopranos of the chorus in this piece for they have shouted at the tops of their voices for two solid hours. Beethoven shows no mercy. He shows more mercy to the soloists who don't have to sing that much. In this performance there was a quiet intensity to their work: soprano Soile Isokoski, alto Sara Mingardo, tenor Pavol Breslik and bass Alistair Miles who was a replacement. It was a fine performance, conducted by Colin Davis, and starring the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus. I'm glad I went back.