Gesture / Gebaar – Camerata Tinta Barocca #ConcertReview

Reviewed by Andrew Wilding

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Cape Town, Wednesday 12 August 2015

CTB from left: Refiloe Olifant, Antoinette Lohmann, Kathleen Clay, Annien Shaw, Jan-Hendrik Harley, Erik Dippenaar, Hans Huyssen, Henrike Kovats, Emile de Roubaix

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In her pre-concert talk, visiting baroque violinist and CTB patron Antoinette Lohmann explained the concept of “gesture” in baroque and early classical music as an important aspect of musical expression for that period, in which the style of writing was often narrative or descriptive. Baroque pieces often describe elements of the weather like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or pantomime scenes from everyday day life using recognisable characters, like the village drunk; the strict father who wants his daughter to marry a doctor; the sneaky lover hiding in the cupboard; etc. “Gesture” in this context refers to the musical description of various characters and their emotions, so that the audience can identify them merely by their music.

 

Antoinette Lohmann, Hans Huyssen, Uwe Grosse, Erik Dippenaar

Biber – Mystery Sonata nr. 13 The Holy Ghost
Mysterious indeed, the opening work plunged deeply into the darkness of the eerie organ, cello, and lute, with bright unexpected bursts of virtuoso from the violin, in which Lohmann’s skill and dexterity beamed through the clouds. She draws such a lovely warm tone from her instrument, a Flemish baroque violin c. 1700. Beautifully intoned double stops highlighted her skill and convinced me to look out for her next performance.

Farina – Capriccio Stravagante
At full tuti, CTB never disappoints with amazing synchronism in entries and tempo changes. Words on a screen can not describe the amazing atmospheric sound of these period instruments, but the feeling is of being transported back to a time where everything seemed new and unjaded, and the imagination is free to fantasise, or one can explore inner contemplation within the unspoiled environment of the pre-industrial age. It is quite amazing that the authentic sound of these baroque instruments has the ability to effect our brains in this way. The work is a portrayal of everyday life, consisting of short descriptive musical “gestures”. The interpretation was excellent and at times quite comical, for example “Il Gatto” – the cat, a deliberate and self-referential parody that must be hundreds of years old, where bad string playing sounds like cats fighting.

Corrette – Concerto Comique XXV
This jewel of the evening shone with the most exquisite ensemble work, most notably between violin and harpsichord (Lohmann, Dippenaar); just violins (Lohmann, Olifant, Clay, Shaw, Harley); and cello and harpsichord (Huyssen, Dippenaar). It is also worth noting that in the selection of works, (Dippenaar – Artistic Director) this concerto is outstanding in it’s lyrical melodies and modal accidentals – an example of baroque at its most transcendental.

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Erik Dippenaar, Bard

Kuhnau – Biblical Sonata nr. 1 – The Battle Between David and Goliath
While listening to the opening movement of this solo work, I felt very fortunate to be attending the concert. It was a story told by the harpsichord player, with the movements being announced before commencement of each. The well-known story took place in our imagination, prompted by dramatic musical gestures of surprising and impressive skill. The first movement was delightful, “The boasting of Goliath” – an utterly over-decorated pompous parade, verbose, over the top, and hilariously narcissistic – the pride before the fall. The second movement, “The trembling of the Israelites” had me in hysterics. Hunched over the keyboard, terrified, hesitating with each bar, Dippenaar’s interpretation was priceless. To see the most famous dual in biblical history played on a harpsichord, one of the lightest and most filigree of all instruments ever created, is really a testimony to the limitlessness of our imagination, and suggests the extent to which our imagination has been lobotomised and dumbed into stagnation by the sensationalism and visual effects of modern forms of entertainment. What a wonderful return to this kind of story telling, where the bard addresses us between movements to prime our imaginations for the next section of the story.

Mozart – Pantalon and Columbine: Music for Pantomime KV 466/416b
Lohmann explained* that she and a colleague Franz Beyer had reconstructed the voices from only the violin score. It must be noted that the orchestration was brilliant, dramatic, rich, and convincing, but the true test of the work is whether or not the musical gestures can be interpreted by the audience and understood to reflect the natures and moods of the various characters, and on this score, CTB could not be flawed. I found I could distinguish the events and characters in the program, and the work neatly drew together the concept of musical gestures.

*I used an existing transcription of the Mozart Pantomime, but did not use the additional pieces used in it in order to complete it. I only used the bits and pieces that have survived in the original 1st violin part and changed a lot in the reconstruction, but most of the work was not done by me. Antoinette Lohmann

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Catch the next concert:

CPE Bach cello concerto in A minor – Peter Martens
8pm Wednesday 16 September 2015
St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

Concert Review: Vivaldi’s Lute – Camerata Tinta Barocca, Uwe Grosser

Reviewed by Andrew Wilding

Camerata Tinta Barocca, St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wed 18 Feb 2015

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The evening opened in a dreamy passacaglia by Biagio Marini, setting an elegant, graceful atmosphere of the finest Italian baroque. Beginning on his bass lute, (chittarone) Grosser provided a basso continuo – a form of accompaniment that encourages improvisation. Talking to him afterwards, Grosser explained how he enjoys arranging the figured bass line much like jazz musicians interpret a standard.

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There is such a wonderful feeling of freshness in these early works, composed when classical music was new and its harmony was still forming. Trends became fashionable and disappeared as quickly as they do today, as Erik Dippenaar mentioned in his pre-concert talk, and it always fascinates my imagination to hear a 17th century compositions played on the instruments of the day as if it were modern, and to think that these early composers could have no idea of what happened in later centuries as a result of their explorations.

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One of the most enjoyable elements in early baroque music for me is the enigmatic logic in the number of bars. Our western ears have become so accustomed to four bar phrases, like walking around a square courtyard. But in baroque music the concrete of this logic had not completely set, so one has a feeling of arriving one bar too soon at a cadence, or that some of these squares must actually be triangles. I imagine this would be either frustrating or delightful depending on one’s level of comfort with odd timings – I find it mesmerizing – like becoming completely lost in a beautiful, elegant palace with many courtyards and gardens, most of which have four walls, some have three, or five, and although blissfully disorientated, one always arrives back at the beginning, just as Douglas Hofstadter’s describes “strange loops” in his book Godel, Escher, Bach, 1979. In clarifying the title, Hofstadter often emphasised that he is indicating our ability to form logic from a seemingly illogical distribution of information in the brain, and I can think of no stimulant more powerful than the psychoacoustic effect of baroque music to facilitate the formation of neural networks. There is something about baroque music that is so orderly, so mathematical, so fresh and peaceful, that it brings to one’s thoughts a sense of sanctuary.

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Quentin Crida and Uwe Grosser playing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Viola d’amore and Lute

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Vivaldi – Concerto in D Major
Most often performed on a guitar, it was a delight to hear this concerto played on the originally intended instrument. Vivaldi developed many techniques for example the pull-off, that were later famously employed by violinists like Paganini, and much later electric guitarists like Van Halen. Grosser performed this extremely technical work with dexterity. He has a wonderful sense of phrasing that can only come with experience – an amazing sense of knowing how to take his time and even to fall slightly behind during the phrase, and yet he lands on “one” perfectly at the beginning of the new phrase. CTB was at this point in the concert a quartet of two violins, cello, and harpsichord, and managed extremely skilled sensitivity to Grosser’s softly spoken lute.

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Vivaldi – Concerto in D minor, RV 540 for Viola d’amore and Lute
Cape Town is very fortunate to have a musician such as Quentin Crida – every bit as serious as granite when he performs, the dry humour of his announcements between pieces verges on stand-up comedy – we were in fits of laughter at the thought of PDQ Bach’s Concerto for bagpipes and lute! The dialogues between violin (Quentin chose this over his viola) and lute were enchanting, Grosser’s stunning right hand technique delivering a light dexterous Shakespearian accompaniment to Crida’s lyrical Largo serenade. I am always impressed with the dynamics in CTB performances. In keeping with the baroque style there is no conductor, and yet the instrumentalists seem to share the same understanding of how the work should be interpreted. They have an awareness of one another that seldom forms in larger orchestras.
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Upcoming Concerts:

Camerata Tinta Barocca – The Clarinet Shall Sound
Danrè Strydom, Head of Winds at UFS performs a fascinating programme of early works for the clarinet. Works by J Stamitz and Fasch.
20h00 Thursday 19 March 2015
Simon’s Town Methodist Church

Uwe Grosser – Duetti – for lutes and voices
Join Uwe Grosser (lute, chitarrone), Vera Vukovic (lute, soprano) and Tessa Roos (mezzo soprano) in an intimate concert of songs and duets by Dowland, Monteverdi, Kapsperger and more. Free entrance, donations welcome. Bring snacks and wine to share. Enquiries: Vera on 076 332 7768
4:00pm Sunday 1 March 2015
Weltevreden, Oranje Road, Noordhoek