It was bitterly disappointing that the Arts in the Valley committee had to cancel Sculpture in the Valley for the second time. Nonetheless, the committee decided to go ahead with the music concerts that were to accompany the sculpture, feeling we all needed a lift.
Three concerts were held over the weekend of 2-3 April. Two Hausemusik at Leary Farm, owned by Fenella Gill and her husband Phillip Heuzenroeder, and a concert in the KV Hall.
On Saturday morning we gathered at beautiful Leary Farm for Conciertos Destilados, a celebration of guitar and Latin American music performed by Andrew Blanch (guitar), and Daniel Rojas (piano).
Daniel, with his smile and engaging personality, opened the concert with an impromptu improvisation as a prelude of what was to follow. Next was a solo piano piece by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992). Piazzolla combined his love of the tango with elements of jazz and classical music, to create a new style ‘nuevo tango’. This music was in Daniel’s bones and he played it with verve.
Andrew had commissioned a piece for guitar and orchestra from Daniel, ‘Guitar Concerto No.1’. This piece required concentration from both the performers and the audience. It is not an easy piece, with a large and colourful palette of sound, a homage to Peruvian drum beats, harsh dissonances and strong rhythmic pulses. Towards the end, the music moved to what felt like a fiesta, where the harmonies and their progression were more composed. It was a powerful piece that pulled you along. Hearing it with full orchestra will add colour and texture, revealing layers that a piano alone cannot provide.
Andrew next played a solo piece by an unknown Brazilian composer that was hauntingly beautiful and allowed Andrew to show the depth of his technical skill and musicianship. The last piece on the program was the much loved ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ by Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999). The second movement, the slow movement, is immediately recognisable and is particularly poignant. It evokes the happy days of his honeymoon, followed by the devastation at the miscarriage of their first child. This was beautifully played, holding the tension, then the climactic build-up and return to the main melody, then resolution to a calm. Here again, the piano is expected to cover many voices, and some of the texture and colour is lost. That said, it was a very enjoyable concert to attend.
The next two concerts formed two halves of a whole. Three world class musicians, Madeline Easton (violin); Neal Peres da Costa (harpsicord); and Daniel Yeadon (gamba and cello) took us on a journey, exploring the French and Italian influences on the music of J S Bach. In the century before Bach, France and Italy were the powerhouses of musical development and innovation.
The Saturday evening concert examined the French influence through two composers, Jacques Morel (1680-1740) and Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764). The French style was largely shaped by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) in the court of Louis XIV. He developed a distinct French opera, as well as dances, suites and overtures. The elegant manner, cultivated by the French composers, and the musical ornamentation used was much imitated throughout Europe, and remained strong through to the 18th century. Jacques Morel was the most famous violin virtuoso of his day, and Le Clair, also a violin virtuoso, was most celebrated for his violin sonatas. Leclair composed with the classical purity of Corelli but with a French sweetness and grace of melody and a lushness in his harmonies. I found the slow movement of his sonata especially beautiful. All of these features are found in the Bach pieces but Bach had gone further, with his musical figures and the weaving of different strands, creating a soaring effect on the melody. In all the pieces of Bach played he shows himself as a contrapuntal genius.
The second part of the two part whole was held on Sunday at Leary Farm. Here the Italian composers, Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1744) and Dieterich Buxtehede (1637-1707) all had a major influence on Bach and his composing. Thinking of Italian contributions, we automatically think of opera and the cantata for vocal chamber music, but what is most often performed today is Italian instrumental music, especially sonatas and concertos. This period of the 17th century was the time of the great violin makers of Cremona, in Northern Italy: Armati (1596-1684), Stradivarius (1644 -1737) and Guarneri (1698-1744). It produced an age of great string music and advances in playing technique. Corelli was a great innovator, developing different sonata forms like Sonata da Chiesa and Sonata da Camera. The centrality of tonality, with uniform patterns of establishing the tonic, departures from it, exploring nearby keys, and return to the end, usually through a reprise of the opening material was established. This musical form would last for the next two centuries. The Italian style features emotional expressiveness that is pleasing to the ear and able to show the performer to their best advantage.
The Bach sonata in B Minor for violin and harpsicord is in the Sonata da Chiesa form. The last movement, the allegro, has the same structure that Vivaldi uses for his fast movements. In the Italian form there would be an alternation between passages for all instruments (ripieno) with passages for one or more soloists (concertino). Bach’s approach was subtly different. The soloists would explore their themes more widely, venturing to more distant keys which set up the homecoming when the opening theme returns in the original key. In Bach the textures are different to the Italians. For example, the distinctions between ripiendo and solo is less clear, or the lower sections may just drop out, leaving the soloists to converse on their own.
It is clear that Bach absorbed into his work all the genres, styles and forms of his time, and developed them to their limits. His recipe was too rich for some of his contemporaries who preferred less complex and more tuneful music. Rediscovered in the 19th century, we now accept fully the central position he has achieved in Western music.
What the musicians provided for us in these two concerts was an overarching vision and a well thought out structure in appreciating Bach in his historical perspective. They did it superbly. All three have come to Bach through love and appreciation. Each has studied and performed Bach for many decades. We were the beneficiaries of this depth of knowledge of the music, and of each other as performers. The confidence in each other, and knowing exactly where they were going, allowed for a freedom and deeper expressivity from each performer. It was great experience of which to be part. Gregory See