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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
February 15, 2008
Now in its third - fourth, if you count the trial balloon of 2005 - year, the Pacific Baroque Festival is rapidly becoming an important part of the Victoria music calendar. The audience is growing and the programming goes from strength to strength.
The theme of this year's festival is Vivaldi's Venice, but Venice never belonged to anyone one composer. The music on offer spanned the best part of a century of Venetian music and yet a unity did seem to emerge in the course of the evening: a Venetian sound, distinct from the sort of music being composed in Rome and certainly completely unlike music from points further south. It was a sound almost as distinctive as the music of England in the same period, or what we call "French baroque." The Venetian sound was - at least until Vivaldi - richly textured and stately, as befits a nation called the Serenissima Repubblica.
The programme began with music of Giovanni Legrenzi, his Sonata XIII from the collection, La Cetra. This rather profound work signaled Destrubé's approach to programming: don't pander to the audience; instead, put intriguing music before them and let it speak for itself. So, rather than opting to begin with a familiar, bright, up tempo barn burner, the Legrenzi is a serious, introspective piece. It allowed the orchestra to display its excellent intonation. A lovely touch was the delayed entry of the harpsichord (playing, I think, on only one stop); the effect was quite haunting.
We begin to get closer to Vivaldi's Venice with the work of Albinoni, but he is still a generation older than "Il Prete Rosso". Not surprisingly, the contrasts with Vivaldi are striking. A completely independent solo part has not yet evolved; his Concerto a 5, Op. 10, No. 2 is really what would later be called a ripieno concerto. It is the two viola parts (plus two violin parts and b.c.) that makes it "a 5".
Like Vivaldi, Albinoni wrote both instrumental music and opera, but in the work of the dilettante (as Albinoni described himself until late in life) the vocal style predominates. In a sense, a concerto finds him playing against his strength: even in an instrumental work the phrasing reminiscent of the opera house. Pacific Baroque gave the work a suitably and beautifully lyrical reading.
When we reached Vivaldi, we find him too cast against type. Known for his concerti, he was represented on this programme by two of his 30-odd surviving cantatas. The first, "Lungi dal vago volto" is scored for soprano, violin and basso continuo.
From the first notes of this cantata Kathleen Brett marked herself out as striking, powerful soprano. We are used to hearing this repertoire sung by lighter voices, but surely in the eighteenth century voices came in various shapes and sizes, just as they do today. In any case, while some might have found Brett's voice over-powering, I found it thrilling. As I type this review, I am listening to Catherine Bott's recording with its more typical early music soprano sound, but I don' t think that I like it as well as Brett's performance. The second aria, with its lovely violin part, typical Vivaldian vigor and forward momentum was the highlight of the first half of the concert. You don' t get that kind of momentum without a good rhythm section, so mention ought to be made of cellist Nathan Whittaker and Michael Jarvis, on harpsichord.
The highlight of the evening, the one I found most emotionally compelling, was Albinoni's Concerto with Oboe, Op. 9., No. 2. This is the correct characterization of the concerto: not the "Concerto for Oboe", as the concert programme had it. Albinoni said that his oboe works with concerto "con" oboe, not "per" oboe. The distinction is an important one: in Albinoni, the oboe sings with the orchestra, not in competition with it.
Washington McClain, one of the leading baroque oboists of out time, entered completely into the spirit of Albinoni's concerto. Although a virtuoso, he did not attempt to hijack the concerto. His interpretation was relaxed, effortless, stylish and completely ravishing. Even in the final allegro (the one not marked "non presto") the playing was still very much under control. Oboe playing doesn't get any better than this. I just wish we had heard more of it.
Baldasar Galuppi is one of my favourite composers: he comes from the experimental period of music making between the baroque and the classical periods. Sometimes called galant, sometimes rococo, this music is hard to characterize. Destrubé led the orchestra in a suitably quirky rendition that captured the experimental nature of this music. I was particularly struck by the interesting viola parts, enthusiastically performed by Steve Cresswell and Pat Armstrong. The playful third movement was lots of fun and the orchestra looked as though they were enjoying themselves.
The evening culminated in Vivaldi's "Vengo a voi luci adorate". This is a fairly conventional piece, two da capo arias separated by a recitatif, but the performance brought it to life. The hoedown feel of the second aria could, perhaps, have been played up a little more, but that is to quibble. This was fine performance by Brett. Who knew that there was such a fine singer living in Courtney?
This was a rewarding evening of excellent music making. I look forward to more this evening.
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