PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA at ALICE TULLY HALL

Anthony Ross Costanzo and Anne Sofie von Otter onstage at Alice Tully Hall

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra presented an unusual program last night that offered delights, both expected and unexpected. Let us begin with the expected delights. Hearing countertenor Anthony Ross Costanzo singing Händel was the main reason we decided to review this evening and he did not disappoint.

Mr. Costanzo's selections served to show off the many special qualities of his instrument and the artistry with which he employs it. In "Inumano fratel ... Stille amare" from Händel's Tolomeo, he began as a victim complaining about how he has suffered at the hands of Fate. When he sang of his beloved, his color warmed and softened, and toward the end, as the poison (actually just a sleeping potion) took effect one could hear the grief and acceptance creep into his voice, accompanied by sobbing strings. We were also impressed by his strength at the lower end of the register.

For vocal fireworks we had to wait for "Vivi tiranno!" from Rodelinda, in which the wild flights of melismatic singing were employed to express Bertando's passion. (Apparently, the aria had the desired effect on Grimoaldo who relents and restores Bertando to the throne.) It was a landmark performance, doing credit to this artist whom we have thrilled to since his student days.

Mezzo-Soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is known to us mainly in her role as Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, one of our favorite operas. We were very much looking forward to hearing her last night and for the most part we enjoyed her performance but we were disappointed in her use of the loathed music stand. We can understand its use in modern works and in ensemble singing but not for the Händel arias.

We admit that her dramatic skills almost overcame the handicap but it did interfere with her connection with the audience, giving us the chance to focus on the superb oboe solo of Marc Schachman in "Will the sun forget to streak" from Handel's Solomon. (If Handel decided to use an English libretto, we can decide to omit the diacritical marks, LOL.)

We enjoyed "Iris, hence away"--Juno's aria of revenge upon the unfortunate title character of Semele. Ms. von Otter invested the performance with plenty of drama in the florid melismatic passages and brought the aria to a powerful ending. 

The two singers sang a charming love duet from Solomon, one with intertwining vocal lines and a playful aspect. Speaking of playful, there was a lagniappe not on the program which both tickled us and also made us a bit uncomfortable.  Let us explain. Ms. von Otter is a head taller than the diminutive Mr. Costanzo. In the duet "My dearest, my fairest" from Purcell's . Pausanias, the pair played it for laughs in a way that might have diminished Mr. Costanzo were he not so secure. It just reminded us of how awkward we have felt on dates with men who were "vertically challenged", as they say.

Readers will be happy to know that we kept an open mind to the contemporary music on the program and were rewarded by aural pleasures.  Arvo Pärt's Summa was composed in 1977 and revised in 1991 for this combination of voices and string orchestra. Thankfully, it was tonal and not terribly challenging. There was a repetitive motif running through the short work. 

Our two vocal artists were well matched by a solo violin and viola in Pärt's  1984 "Es sang vor langen Jahren", which opened with a lovely string tremolo. The text was by Romantic poet Clemens Brentano.

We also liked two related pieces by Caroline Shaw which confirmed our opinion that singers excel in writing for the voice. We heard the world premiere of "And So" which was related to a work from three years ago called "Red, Red Rose" with a text by Robert Burns--a text which scanned and rhymed--two qualities which we feel tend to inspire melodic music. 

Ms. von Otter limned the pretty little turns in the vocal line and floated some exquisite high notes. The Burns work had the quality of a folk song with repeated verses.

We have yet to mention the instrumental pieces on the program, which opened with the Overture to Partenope by Händel. Maestro Nicolas McGegan has a modest appearance on the podium, without theatrics, but pulled together a consistently excellent performance from his mostly string orchestra which also includes a pair of Baroque oboes, a bassoon, a theorbo, and a harpsichord. During the Shaw we were sure we heard a celeste but could not see one!

The major instrumental work on the program was Händel's Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, of which we preferred the graceful Minuet and the spirited Gavotte.

The program closed with a Suite from Purcell's The Fairy Queen in which the theorbist occasionally swapped his theorbo for a Baroque guitar.

What an interesting concept it was to combine Baroque music and Modern music on the same program--all played by a Baroque ensemble!

(c) meche kroop

BANGING AND BOWING

Juilliard Percussion Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall

Last night we stepped way out of our usual territory to review some exciting new works for percussion by faculty members and graduate students from Princeton University, a leading incubator of compositional talent in the United States. Whilst we have found contemporary vocal compositions to be largely boring, contemporary percussion compositions we found to be rather exciting, as they created an exotic soundscape.

We heard six works and weren't bored for a minute. The opening work Four for Flexatones by Juri Seo captured our attention not only because of the originality of the handheld instruments but because of the aspect of body movement. The four musicians walked around the stage and tossed the sounds around as if they were balls. It was a playful dance in which the musicians became dancers accompanying themselves. At one moment, they simultaneously drew bows from their backpacks and appeared like samurai.

Steven Mackey's Madrigal, conducted by Daniel Druckman, created a pleasing sound world in which the female voice was just another component. Soprano Michelle Geffner has a lovely voice but, unfortunately, the text she sang was incomprehensible. We are not even sure it was English. But it didn't matter. It was the texture of the voice melded with a variety of percussion instruments that was so pleasurable to the ear.

We loved Donnacha Dennehy's Surface Tension in which the percussionists produced waves of sound, rising and falling with varying dynamics. The idea was to let the drums sing on various pitches, manipulating the tone by means of blowing air through a tube into the side of the drum. Various other techniques were seen.  For example, the keys of the vibraphone and the marimba were sometimes bowed instead of struck, producing interesting timbres.

Oscar Bettison's Four Drums for Dresden was the least interesting of the six pieces, relying more on a theoretical concept than on a compelling result. The idea was to get live percussion to imitate electronic dance music. To our ears, it sounded a lot like noise, although we did enjoy the syncopated central section.

Far more interesting was Caroline Shaw's taxidermy in which the musicians played on flower pots. This sounded original and was especially pleasing when they were played in intervals of a minor third. We thought of the glass harmonica and how simple household objects are worth exploring for their unusual voices. The spoken text at the conclusion of the piece added nothing of value. The music spoke for itself.

In Pillar IV, Andy Akiho used a variety of experimental techniques to produce a collection of odd sounds. There were some highly pitched sounds punctuated by the forceful bass drum. Conventional percussion instruments were played in unorthodox manners, reminding us very much of children at play who don't follow the rules. It was a freeing experience watching drums being beaten on their frames and vibraphones being struck on the tubes instead of the keys.

Let's have a big round of applause for innovation and experimentation! The Juilliard musicians were Omar El-Abidin, Simon Herron, Euijin Jung, Yoon Jun Kim, Benjamin Cornavaca, Toby Grace, Joseph Bricker, Tyler Cunningham, Stella Perlic, Yibing Wang, Jacob Borden, Harrison Honor, Mizuki Morimoto, and Leo Simon.

(c) meche kroop