Interesting programmes, strange timing - homages to Lully and Louis Couperin

Lucile Richardot

Un hommage à Lully / Un hommage à Louis Couperin; Lucile Richardot, Thibault Roussel, Mathilde Vialle, Duo Coloquintes; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 13 Mar 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (Lully) / 3.5 (Couperin) (★★★★ / ★★★½)
A pair of intimate concerts paying homage to two major French baroque figures

On Wednesday 16 May 2018, the London Festival of Baroque Music presented a pair of intimate concerts paying homage to two of the greatest French Baroque Composers. First Lucile Richardot (mezzo-soprano), Thibault Roussel (theorbo & guitar) and Mathilde Vialle (bass viol) presented Un hommage à Lully and then for the late-evening concert, Duo Coloquintes (Alice Julien-Laferrière - violin, Mathilde Vialle - viola da gamba) presented Un hommage à Louis Couperin.

Un hommage à Lully

It seems that everywhere we look these days we see evidence of the contribution of immigrants to a country’s economic and cultural hegemony. Seventeenth-century France was no different. Louis XII and Louis XIV owed their power to an Italian, Cardinal Mazarin (born Mazzarino) who headhunted his compatriot Giovanni Battista Lulli amongst others to ensure the Versailles court had the best in music as well as everything else.

Jean-Baptiste Lully – as he Gallicised himself – arrived in Paris at the age of 14 and the received wisdom is that he had not had much by way of formal musical training in his native Florence, that his Italian-ness was an appeal to the nostalgia of his employer, Mazarin.

Te Deum: Purcell & Charpentier at Westminster Abbey for London Festival of Baroque Music

Henry Purcell

Te Deum, Purcell & Charpentier; Choir of Westminster Abbey, St James Baroque, James O'Donnell; London Festival of Baroque Music at Westminster Abbey
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on 15 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A beguiling concert and exceeding exultant.

On a beautiful sun-kissed evening I crossed Parliament Square with a spring in my step and into to the architectural wonder that is Westminster Abbey. You can taste a thousand years of history as you enter and its something of a privilege to hear works composed by Henry Purcell a previous Abbey organist, now lying in the north aisle “who left this life and is gone to that Blessed Place where only His harmony can be exceeded."

As part of the London Festival of Baroque Music, the evening (Tuesday 15 May 2018) was a celebration of all things Te Deum, Purcell’s Te Deum in D Z232 and Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum in D H146 bookending a programme performed by The Choir of Westminster Abbey and St James’ Baroque, directed by James O'Donnell. Music had become “run into the French way” following the Restoration and it was fascinating to hear contemporary works from either side of la Manche from the period of the Grand Siècle.

All-star Orfeo - Iestyn Davies and Sophie Bevan at the London Festival of Baroque Music

Gluck: Orfeo et Eurydice

Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice; Iestyn Davies, Sophie Bevan, Rebecca Bottone, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on 13 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Gluck's original 1762 Orfeo in a starry performance

This year’s London Festival of Baroque Music has as its theme ‘Treasures of the Grand Siècle’ and the festival brochure is very French: gold Sun King and etching of Versailles, so I had to double-check when I realised this concert was the 1762, Vienna version (in Italian) of Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck’s take on the Orpheus myth. David Bates conducted La Nuova Musica with Iestyn Davies as Orfeo, Sophie Bevan as Euridice and Rebecca Bottone as Amore at St John's Smith Square on 13 May 2018.

What we heard tonight was, more or less, the original version of the opera, but with the addition of the Elysian Fields music, scored for solo flute and strings, that was one of the additions for the Paris version of 1774.

In our version, though the language is Italian, there was a definite French feel: lack of flashy virtuosity; accompagnato recitatives; extended dances and wonderful choruses where the voices move in blocks so we can hear the text very clearly.

Sébastien Daucé introduces his programme for the London Festival of Baroque Music

The 2018 London Festival of Baroque Music was launched on Tuesday 16 January 2018 with an event in the grand spaces of the former Conservative Club in St James's Street. This year's festival has Sébastien Daucé as Guest Artistic Director and he introduced highlights of the festival (which runs from 11 to 19 May 2018) and was joined by members of his Ensemble Correspondance, Mathilde Vialle (viola da gamba) and Thibaut Roussel (theorbo), to perform Francois Couperin's Suite No 1 in E minor for viola da gamba, harpsichord and theorbo. 

Sébastien Daucé

There is very much a French theme to this year's festival, under the title of Treasures of the Grand Siecle, and performers include Le Poème Harmonique (director Vincent Dumestre), Fuoco E Cenere (director Jay Bernfield), Le Concert de l'Hostel-Dieu (director Franck Emmanuel Comte), Duo Coloquintes, Arnaud de Pasquale, Les Kapsbergirls, Doulce Memoire (director Denis Raisin Dadre) and Sébastien Daucé's own group Ensemble Correspondances.

The music at the festival is focused on the court of Louis XIV. At the launch Sébastien Daucé talked about Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Histoires sacrées, oratorios written after his sojourn in Rome. Charpentier's manuscripts for the works contain stage directions and other indications that some sort of staging might have been done (as was done for oratorio in Rome). So Sébastien Daucé and director Vincent Huguet have put together a staging of three to answer the question, could these works be staged?

Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances will also be performing at the festival's final concert, when Daucé's edition of Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit will be performed. Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit was a hugely influential ballet du court performed in 1653 at the court of the young Louis XIV to mark the end of the Fronde. It was huge in scale and marked the appearance of the 15 year old Louis as the Sun, cementing the idea of him as The Sun King. The music for the ballet was thought to have disappeared but the violin part was discovered six years ago and from this Daucé has re-constructed the ballet. The full ballet lasted all night, so only an extract will be performed. Daucé calls the music striking and strange.

The late night sequence of concerts will be based around the idea of Tombeaux, the memorial pieces which one composer would write for another. And as a step out from Le Grand Siecle, Iestyn Davies will be taking the title role in Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice with David Bates and La Nuova Musica. The choir of Westminster Abbey, conducted by James O'Donnell will be giving a programme of Te Deums, pairing Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum in D H146 with Purcell's Te Deum in D Z232.

Full details from the London Festival of Baroque Music website.

Handel's Jephtha at London Festival of Baroque Music

Jephtha's Rash Vow (1807),
by James Gundee & M. Jones, London

Handel Jephtha; Nick Pritchard, Helen Charlston, Matthew Brook, Mary Bevan, James Hall, Rowan Pierce, Holst Singers, Academy of Ancient Music, Stephen Layton; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 20 2017
Star rating: 4.0
A predominantly young cast in a thoughtful and moving account of Handel's last oratorio

The London Festival of Baroque Music concluded at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 20 May 2017 with a performance of Handel's oratorio Jephtha. Stephen Layton conducted the Holst Singers and the Academy of Ancient Music with Nick Pritchard as Jephtha, Helen Charlston as Storgè, Matthew Brook as Zebul, James Hall as Hamor, Mary Bevan as Iphis and Rowan Pierce as the Angel.

Jephtha is regarded as Handel's final oratorio. It was written whilst he was suffering badly with his eyesight and premiered in 1752, after which Handel only managed to produce The Triumph of Truth and Time which was effectively an English re-write of his early Italian oratorio, produced with the aid of Joseph Smith as amanuensis. Jephtha has almost become main-stream now, there have been staged performances at the Buxton Festival, at English National Opera and at Welsh National Opera, and it was performed a few years ago at the London Handel Festival, with tenors such as James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, John Mark Ainsley and Robert Murray essaying the title role.

So it is easy to forget quite how 'at the edge' the piece was when first written. The title role was written for the great tenor John Beard, the final celebration of a talent which had inspired Handel to create a series of striking tenor roles, elevating the tenor voice in a way that was practically unheard of in the earlier Baroque period. The libretto explores some dark places, librettist Thomas Morrell incorporated elements of Greek drama into his re-working of the biblical story. Whilst Morrell was concerned to point a moral, Handel's music re-focuses the drama making it more human and it is hard not to identify the intensity of Jephtha's predicament with Handel's own struggles with his sight.

John Beard clearly had quite a robust, yet flexible voice, his roles for Handel stretch from the lyrical in L'Allegro right through do the dramatic tour-de-force of the title role in Samson. The young tenor Nick Pritchard is very much a lyric tenor and his voice does not (yet) have either the dramatic heft or the spinto blade to either dominate or cut through the orchestra and he sensibly offered a lyric account of the role.

Doubly valedictory: EUBO, Maria Keohane & Lars Ulrik Mortensen in Bach and Handel

EUBO at St John's Smith Square in 2015

Handel, Bach; Maria Keohane, European Union Baroque Orchestra, Lars Ulrik Mortensen; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 19 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Vividly engaged and engaging Handel really lifted this performance

There was something doubly valedictory about this performance by the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square on Friday 19 May 2017. Not only was it the final performance of the orchestra with this particular line up, before the current players return home and a new group assembles, but it was the last performance before EUBO moves its base of operations from the UK to Belgium (as an EU funded organisation the group needs to be based in an EU country). The ensemble was directed from the harpsichord by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, with Bojan Cicic as concertmaster, in a programme of Bach and Handel with soprano Maria Keohane; Handel's Concerto grosso in D minor Op.6 no.10, cantata Tu fedel? Tu costante? HWV171a, Passacaille in G minor (from the Trio Sonata Op.5 No.4) and 'Ombre pallide' from Alcina, and Bach's Harpsichord concerto in a major BWV 1055 and cantata Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten BWV 202 (Wedding Cantata).

We started with Handel's concerto grosso; the stylised Ouverture, with bows really digging in, led to an Allegro which danced with a swing. The slow movement was graceful, followed by a pair of beautifully characterised Allegros, and a final Allegro moderato which had moments of robust enjoyment. You could imagine a grander performance, but not one better characterised. Lars Ulrik Mortensen encouraged his young players to really bring out the individual characteristics of the different sections of the music, and it helped that they were clearly enjoying themselves too.

The version of Handel's cantata we heard was not the familiar one, it starts the same but then wanders off; it comes from a manuscript owned by Ton Koopman who realised it differed from the familiar version written in 1707 and this version may even date from before Handel's trip to Italy.

Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the London Festival of Baroque Music

Monteverdi L'Orfeo; Matthew Long, I Fagiolini, English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, Thomas Guthrie, Robert Hollingworth; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on May 18 2017
Star rating: 3.5
Precise and sometimes reverential, with flashes of majesty; Monteverdi's first opera in a semi-staged performance

As part of the London Festival of Baroque Music this L’Orfeo was a semi-staged performance by Thomas Guthrie at St John’s Smith Square on 18 May 2017 with Matthew Long as Orfeo, directed by Robert Hollingworth with I Fagiolini and the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble.

Not wanting to re-rehearse old arguments here, but much has been written about L’Orfeo; what constitutes “authentic” performance, instrumentation, ornamentation and drama et. al. A myriad labels have been attached to Orfeo’s luggage describing it as a proto-opera, the first true success in the opera genre, nascent opera or even early baroque opera which only serves to cloud any spontaneous appreciation of the work.

I would prefer to think of it simply as a exquisite poem and treat it on it’s own merits. Described as a Favola (fable) in musica it’s a work full of drama and poignancy. Thomas Guthrie’s direction was restrained and efficient rather than revelatory so our attentions were concentrated firmly on the performers.

Fish or fowl? Jasmin Toccata's Late o'Clock Baroque at London Festival of Baroque Music

Jasmin Toccata (Keyvan Chemirani, Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford)
photo Bertrand Pichene

Late o'Clock Baroque: Jasmin Toccata; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on May 13 2017
Star rating: 3.0
The intersection of two traditions in a late-night club atmosphere

On paper this looked very promising. An encounter between the European Baroque tradition and traditional Persian music for the late slot on Saturday 13 May 2017 at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square. The three musicians of Jasmin Toccata (Keyvan Chemirani – zarb, santour & director, Thomas Dunford – lute, Jean Rondeau – harpsichord) in an hour-long programme at the intersection of two traditions that appear to have a lot in common, in terms of timbral range and improvisatory freedom, but with rules. It would have been a great opportunity to explore.

But we were given no help, no clues as to what we were listening to, and the audience that stayed on after Telemann and Bach (see my review) were probably glad to have been spared the challenge of reading programme notes in the dark. But a few introductions, a few titles, even wouldn’t have gone amiss. It all seemed rather clubby (in a bad way – though in a night club or at a party that would have been fine).

The sound world was lovely – hypnotic and soft on the ear.

Virtuosic Bach and stormy Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767),
hand-coloured aquatint by Valentin Daniel Preisler,
after a lost painting by Louis Michael Schneider, 1750

Bach, Telemann; Elin Manahan Thomas, Florilegium, Ashley Solomon; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on May 13 2017
Star rating: 3.5
One of this year's other anniversaries, the music of Telemann celebrated with that of his contemporary Bach

This concert at St John's Smith Square was part of the London Festival of Baroque Music on Saturday 13 May 2017 featured one of this year’s other anniversary composers (Monteverdi being the more high-profile one): Georg Philipp Telemann died 250 years ago in 1767 at the age of 86 having left behind huge numbers of works that listeners to Radio 3 are regularly exposed to. Florilegium, director Ashley Solomon, performed Telemann's Ouverture-Suite in F major TWV55:F15 and Cantata: Ino, with soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. Sandwiched between two Telemann works was Bach's fifth Brandenburg concerto.

The concerto is probably one of the most famous job applications in musical history, the six concertos were recycled from existing works and presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg to show off the range of Bach’s writing and, presumably to give an indication of the skill of his Cöthen musicians who would follow him in the event of a job offer. In the event Bach stayed put in Cöthen, where he had a group of instrumentalists whom he could put in the limelight as soloists.

Looking ahead: London Festival of Baroque Music

The theme of this year's London Festival of Baroque Music is Baroque at the Edge. The festival, which runs from 12 to 20 May 2017, celebrates the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi and the 250th anniversary of the death of Telemann, Monteverdi is represented by two of his major works, though Telemann is less favoured. Telemann's friend Handel is well represented with Handel's final oratorio.

Mining the Monteverdi theme, Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra will perform Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 at St John's Smith Square. And L'Orfeo will be done in a semi-staging directed by Thomas Guthrie at St John's Smith Square, with Matthew Long in the title role, plus I Fagiolini and the English Cornett and Sackutt Ensemble, directed by Robert Hollingworth.

Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company, with Lucy Crowe and Tim Mead, will be performing music by CPE Bach and WF Bach, alongside Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, I am sure the Pergolesi will be wonderful but couldn't we have had something a little different, perhaps JS Bach's re-write? Still in a Bach vein, James O'Donnell directs the choir of Westminster Abbey and St James's Baroque in Bach's Mass in B minor at Westminster Abbey. Bach would be surprised at the size of the forces used and at the size of the venue, but it will be wonderful nonetheless.

A visit by the European Union Baroque is always a highlight and Lars Ulrik Mortensen directs them in the Harpsichord Concerto in A and the Wedding Cantata by Bach, plus arias and a concerto grosso by Handel. Handel's Jephtha closes the festival, with Nick Pritchard in the title role, and Stephen Layton conducting the Holst Singers and the Academy of Ancient Music.

In the vein of mixing things up, Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) and Thomas Dunford (lute), join with oriental percussionist Kyvan Chemirani to explore the meeting of European Baroque with traditional Persian music.

Other artists performing include harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, Elin Manahan Thomas and Florilegium, director Ashley Solomon, and Les Passions de l'Ame. The festival's young artist strand, Future Baroque, will be featuring Ensemble Moliere, Ensemble Hesperi, and Nathaniel Mander.

Full details from the London Festival of Baroque Music website.

Last but not least - Rachel Podger and EUBO at the London Festival of Baroque Music

Rachel Podger and the European Union Baroque Orchestra performing in May 2016

Lully, Albinoni, Vivaldi, Handel, Wassenaer, Hellendaal; European Union Baroque Orchestra, Rachel Podger; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 19 2016
Star rating: 5.0
Communicative and joyful performances of a programme of baroque concertos, both well-known and lesser known

There was very much a feeling of endings, and new beginnings, at last night's (19 May 2016) London Festival of Baroque Music concert at St John's Smith Square. Under the title Final Word, the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) directed from the violin by Rachel Podger gave the last concert in the festival, and it was the orchestra's last concert in this form. EUBO dissolves and re-creates itself anew each year, and this was the final occasion when this particular group of players was performing together. But of course, we look forward to hearing EUBO's new line-up next year, and to the festival's 2017 incarnation.

Rachel Podger directed EUBO in a programme of baroque overtures and concertos, with Jean-Baptiste Lully's overture and dances from his opera Phaeton, Tomaso Albinoni's Concerto a 5 in C major, Op.10 No.3, Antonio Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in E major, Op.3 No.12 RV265 (from L'estro armonico), George Frideric Handel's Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op.3 No.1 HWV312, Unico Wilhelm  van Wassenaer's Concerto armonico No. 3 in A major, Pieter Hellendaal's Grand Concerto in G minor, Op.3 No.1 and Handel's Concerto grosso in C major, HWV 312 'Alexander's Feast'.

There was another theme running through the programme, more subtle perhaps and you had to read Simon Heighes excellent article in the programme book to really be aware of it. 2016 is probably the 350th anniversary of  the births of John Walsh senior and Estienne Roger, two of the major publishers of the age. Walsh published Handel (at first without permission and then with Handel's cooperation), whilst Roger published Vivaldi. Walsh dominated the English marked and Roger the European, and between then they published much of the music performed in the evening's programme. A tribute to two important but relatively shadowy figures.

Rachel Podger is a highly expressive player who has quite a dramatic use of her body language when playing and this style seemed to have inspired the whole group of players (some 18 in all covering eight different nationalities). Playing standing up (except for the cellos), the young people seemed to take Podger's physicality to heart and made the performance an expressively visual feast as well as aural. What was really noticeable about the music was that the ensemble had developed a real personality. This wasn't just a technically assured and highly creditable account of some tricky pieces. The players formed a real ensemble with a communal sense of vivid expressiveness, sense of vitality and constant feel of enjoyment. Whatever the mood of the music, whether happy, or sad, you felt they were all united in their wish to tell you that this was wonderful stuff.

Irresistible warmth & charm - Haleluyáh – Il Mantovano Hebreo

Profeti della Quinta - photo Mel et Lac
(Ori Harmelin, Roman Melish, Lior Leibovici, Elam Rotem, Dan Dunkelblum, Doron Schleifer)

Haleluyáh – Il Mantovano Hebreo; Profeti della Quinta; London Festival of Baroque Music, St John’s Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on May 16 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Enthusiastic and engaging exploration of the music of Salomone Rossi

Profeti della Quinta – Prophets of the Perfect Fifth – are a mostly Israeli group from Galilee (with one Polish violinist), now based in Basel, where they studied together at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

For their first London concert at St John's Smith Square on 16 May 2016 as part of the London Festival of Baroque Music, they explored the sacred and secular music of the early-Renaissance Mantuan composer Salamone Rossi ((c.1570 – c.1630). The concert was dubbed ‘Il Mantovano Hebreo’ – but with the caveat that Rossi was definitely more Mantuan than Jewish. He wrote for the Synagogue, having first made his name as a violinist and composer for the Gonzaga Court. He lived in the ghetto, but he was excused the wearing of the yellow star that was compulsory for Jews at that period.

The programme for this St John’s concert mixed sacred and secular, Italian and Hebrew, with vocal and instrumental music interleaved. Rossi’s sound world is not what we would think of as Jewish; he is assumed to have studied with Monteverdi and certainly there are echoes of his fellow ‘Mantovano’ in his Italian madrigals. At a later stage in his career, and alongside his secular work, Rossi set about revolutionising the music of the synagogue, bringing together books of settings of Psalms and, famously, the ‘Hashirim Asher LiSh’lomo’ (Songs of Solomon). As a contemporary wrote: “His compositions of music in [Italian] that were printed in book form found favour with those not of Israel”.

Rossi’s contribution to this Jewish musical renaissance was short-lived, though; he is assumed to have died when the Austrian imperial troops invaded the Mantua ghetto in 1730.

Profeti della Quinta are enthusiastic and engaging champions of Rossi’s work. Their sound is mellifluous and light, yet grounded. Their Hebrew singing has a forward, Italianate quality and throughout the evening they exuded a warmth and charm that was irresistible. The instrumental pieces included various dances; the roller-coaster ride of a Gagliarda; the airy Corrente a 6. The Italian madrigals and Hebrew Psalms were delivered with sincerity and (for my taste) just the right amount of drama.

The first half ended with a piece by the music director, Elam Rotem – pure luxury from the Song of Songs. The official programme ended with Rossi’s powerful and highly charged setting of the Kaddish, and for the encore a complete change of mood: the two tenors, as shepherds, ardently and unsuccessfully attempting to woo the coy counter-tenors, as shepherdesses. A lovely London début for the group. I wasn’t the only one in the audience who hopes they come back soon.

Reviewed by Ruth Hansford

Profeti della Quinta
Doron Schleifer, David Feldman – cantus
Lior Leibovici, Dan Dunkelblum – tenor
Elam Rotem – bassus, harpsichord & musical director
Katya Polin, Jacek Kurzydło – violin
Orí Harmelin – chitarrone

Recommended recording:
The ensemble's disc Salomone Rossi: Il Mantovano Hebreo is available from Amazon.co.uk.

Elsewhere on this blog:

• God spake the word: Handel's Israel in Egypt - Concert review
• Energetic Shakespeare celebrations: Ex Cathedra in Arne and Sally Beamish - concert review
• Listening as if for the first time: Handel's original Dublin version of Messiah - concert review
• A work in progress: Bellini's first opera Adelson e Salvini - concert review
• The power of five: Songs to the Moon from the Myrthen Ensemble - CD review
• The art is in putting people together: artistic director Douglas Boyd talks about Garsington Opera's new season - interview
• Firmly intent concentration on the music itself: Vox Luminis at the Cadogan Hall - concert review
• Strength, discipline & delicacy: Alexandra Dariescu, Fabien Gabel and RPO - concert review
• Adelina Patti, hurdy-gurdies & a Scots dance band: How to be HIP at Kings Place - feature article
• Beethoven, Dvorak & a constellation: Trio Celeste - CD review
• Strongly characterised: new music by Reiko Füting - CD review
• Intimate charm: Handel's Acis and Galatea - Concert review
• Home