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St. Elizabeth's Church, Sidney
May 19, 2017
Antonio Vivaldi, it would seem, has always tended to divide opinion. When brought before the Inquisition for leaving the altar during a Mass he was conducting, in order to write down the theme for a fugue which had suddenly occurred to him, it was considered an "aberration of genius" and his only punishment was that he was forbidden to say Mass in the future.
On the other hand, Carlo Goldoni, a near-contemporary, considered Vivaldi "an excellent violinist and a mediocre composer", while more recently Igor Stravinsky described him as "a dull fellow who would compose the same form over and so many times over".
Stravinsky, of course, was speaking in the 20th century, a century which seemed to value originality in the arts above all else; the notion that one could composed hundreds of concertos ("the same form") and that most, if not all, of them would have points of interest, had become anachronistic.
If the revival in interest in the baroque which has occurred over the last half-century has revealed anything about Vivaldi, it is that he is an even more interesting composer than many had previously thought and that even his more obscure music is worth more than the occasional outing.
Consider, for example, his three-dozen-and-then-some String Symphonies (also known as Concertos for Strings). These are very rarely performed and have very seldom been recorded; yet, as was quite dramatically demonstrated on Friday evening, when Stephen Brown and the Sidney Classical Orchestra opened their final concert of the season with two of these almost mythical beasts, they are far from mere note-spinning; one can only surmise that, had Vivaldi not written The Four Seasons we might hear his other music rather more frequently.
From the opening of the D major, RV121 (the first of seven in that key) several things were manifest: firstly, that the music could have been composed by no other hand; secondly, that the Sidney Classical Orchestra is a fine instrument: fourteen in number, they are large enough to provide a full, even weighty sound, yet small enough to be thoroughly responsive.
Both concertos offered the same virtues, certainly in terms of the performance (musically, pace Stravinsky and others, they were not identical): namely, nicely sprung rhythms in the outer, quick movements, smooth, yet never bland, playing in the slow. I was especially taken with the central movement of the D major, which was quite lovely, even though, technically, it was little more than a melody spun over a series of cadences. If you need evidence of Vivaldi's genius, I would certainly cite this movement.
Even one of his favourite gestures, that of simply repeating a phrase more quietly, was so gracefully done as to sound more a stroke of genius and less a personal cliché.
I think I could quite happily have sat through these performers playing an entire evening of Vivaldi.
The first half of the concert close with the evening's premiere: Stephen Brown's own concerto for two cellos, "The Big Twin" — neither in his programme note nor in person did he explain this — written for and after hearing the orchestra's own cellists, Joyce Ellwood and Laura Backstrom, playing the concerto for two cellos by — who else? — Vivaldi.
This music alone would have been more than worth the trek up the Pat Bay Highway.
The concerto is cast in three movements, quick slow and quick, which sounds conventional enough, although the tempo marking for the outer movements, Allegro mysterioso, did give me some pause for thought: was this a deliberate misspelling of "misterioso" or simply a typo?
But the music itself was far too engaging and involving to be distracted by mere questions of spelling. The opening built the tension nicely until the intial, almost aggressive solo entries. The music proceeded with a driving momentum, until a slower, more lyrical episode intervened, in which the duetting cellos' gorgeous harmonies summoned forth memories of the wonderful second subject of Schubert's great string quintet, before resuming what Brown himself described as a "wild ride".
The adagio featured an ethereal introduction, the soloists playing over deep pizzicatos in what sounded like a nod to Vivaldi. This movement was really lovely and the duo cadenza really rather moving, which is not something one necessarily expects from a cadenza.
The finale opens in similar style to the first movement and segues into a lively gig in a style somewhat reminiscent of Percy Grainger. The music here was especially catchy and mine was far from the only foot tapping in time. The cadenza, with its overtone of a sarabande from a Bach suite, was delectable, although perhaps just a little too long in this context, the bounce back the speedy coda was excellent and the final chords brought storms of well-deserved applause.
Ellwood and Backstrom played superbly throughout, as did their accompanists, even though some of the music was clearly far from easy.
This was a most enjoyable work, which I would certainly be pleased to hear again. I have never understood why Stephen Brown is not a better-known composer; I can think of several with international reputations who are far less interesting, have far less to say and far lesser means of saying it. He really is something of a local treasure.
We rarely think of Ralph Vaughan Williams as a composer for the piano, and with good reason: his entire output for the instrument lasts a little over an hour. As this particular outpost of RVW is rarely visited, there is clearly scope for arrangement; the arrangement for strings of the Suite in G major into the Charterhouse Suite, done by James Brown, under the composer's supervision, has provided another charming short work for string orchestra.
The six brief movements were played with charm and style, with excellently-handled crescendos in the fourth and sixth movements and some excellent solo work from concertmaster Misako Sotozaki and principal viola Barry Leung.
Leslie Opatril's Caldera was receiving its Western Canada premiere and revealed a young composer of considerable talent and no little skill.
From its unquiet opening to its impressive close, this was increasingly involving, highly atmospheric music, idiomatically written for strings. This was the first of her music I've heard; I look forward to hearing more.
Finally we had another string symphony, this one the third by that youthful prodigy Felix Mendelssohn. (I admit to being somewhat surprised to read in the programme that, far from dying too soon, as I had always believed, Mendelssohn was actually one of history's longest-lived composer, his dates being 1809-1947 [sic]. However, his output during his last century was disappointingly small. Nobody seems to know why; at least we know the reason — alcohol — for Sibelius' last three silent decades. But I digress.)
With its determined opening movement, in which Brown paid careful attention to dynamics, its smoothly flowing andante and lively finale, almost baroque in feel, all leading to a delicious close, this was another performance to put a smile on the face: I know it did mine.
Every time I hear the Sidney Classical Orchestra I ask myself why I don't attend their concerts more frequently.
I'm still wondering.
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