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Baroque for Dancers New York
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
06/18/2024 -
Charles Avison: Concerto grosso No. 5 (after Scarlatti)
Francesco Geminiani: Concerto grosso No. 5, “La Folia”, Opus 5 No. 12 (after Corelli) – Concerto Grosso, Opus 5 No. 10
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572 (arr. Labadie) – Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056 – Violin Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052R
Johann Pachelbel: Chaconne in E Minor (arr. Labadie)
Augustin Hadelich (Violin)
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Bernard Labadie (Principal Guest Conductor)
B. Labadie (© Dario Acosta)
“A full chord struck, or a beautiful succession of single sounds produced, is no less ravishing to the ear, than just symmetry or exquisite colours to the eye.”
Charles Avison
“I will play it if you force me, Even though it deeply bores me.
Every party, every salon, ‘Pachelbel, please play your Canon.’
Not too late, for I can tell you’d Really love my Choral Prelude,
My Toccata, my Sonatas, No, I see, they’re all non-starters.
Fine then, you win. Here’s the damn thing.”
Anonymous poem
If nothing else, last night’s concert by the wonderful Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) proved that Baroque music is a lot more benign–even rustically blissful–than Handel at his organ or dour old Johann Sebastian scribbling in his Bach’s Office. In fact, under conductor Bernard Labadie, the 15 virtuosi of OSL made this music dance, prance and offer this listener imaginary images of the composer.
One could picture Francesco Geminiani laying his violin on a table and dancing a British hornpipe for the last movement of his Concerto Grosso. Or Johann Pachelbel jumping from his church seat to sing part of his E Minor Chaconne. Or Geminiani again, taking the newest dance from 17th Century Iberia, La Folia, and laughing with merry delight as one of his favorite soloists) played a few jaunty solos.
None of these images (even if true) would make up the stereotypical Baroque concert. But from the first punctuated measures of Charles Avison to the meta‑sizzling Allegro of Bach’s popular D Minor Concerto, Mr. Labadie summoned up the OSL to offer a more than blissful tenor to the early 18th Century.
Actually, some scholars opine that music of this period was played much faster than modern renditions. Mr. Labadie took that to heart. We know that Charles Avison, a generation after Henry Purcell, had the same , sense of dance, and his Concerto Grosso, supposedly taken after Scarlatti, was a product of Old Albion.
Mr. Labadie started with a slow short introduction, and launched into three very British-style masque-style dances.
For some, that would be mood-breaker. But no. Francesco Geminiani, born the same year as Handel, also made London his home. And while La Folia was essayed by virtually every 18th Century composer, the Italian‑born fiddler gave us a satisfactory 22 variations, highlighted by a frankly astonishing Augustin Hadelich as violin soloist.
Finally we had another Pachelbel Canon, this arranged by Mr. Labadie for the OSL. Obviously the repetitions were, like those of Geminiani, things of bliss and, yes, fun. More important, it showed us another splendid soloist here Concertmaster Kristo Bennion Feeney.
I had never heard the original organ work by Bach, but Mr. Labadie arranged this as a Fantasia for orchestra, transformed into an orchestra with the lyricism of a cantata solo.
A. Hadelich (© Suxiao Yang/Warner Classics & Erato)
Now to the violin soloist of the night, the American-German virtuoso Augustin Hadelich. One would ordinarily use the word “youthful” for this multi‑prize winner, a soloist already of three continents. But his playing superseded such a confining adjective.
From his ensemble playing in the Folia to the pair of Bach concerti, Mr. Hadelich gave an astonishing mastery of his 1744 Guarneri fiddle. This was clean playing without affectation. So natural that, in the first concerto, one hardly noticed his own improvisations, his short cadenzas. His tone was never filled with gushing vibrato, never reaching for the high notes, but playing with (if one can use this word) veracity.
As for the second movement of the first G Minor Concerto, these measures were as rhapsodic, as insouciantly beautiful as any I can remember.
The greatest crowd-pleaser–for which I felt some contempt–was the D Minor Concerto, which ended the evening, In fact, it brings to mind an old joke: “Augustin Hadelich played Bach last night. Bach lost.”
Conductor Labadie gave such a whirlwind tempo to both Allegro movements that one lost even an iota of structure. That, though, was fine with Mr. Hadelich. If anything, he increased that tempo with a dazzling display. So dazzling that Bach got lost in the tempest.
Never mind. His Bach solo encore showed just how sensitive he can be. One looks forward–or willlisten forward–to this great artist whose violin is a thing of consummate wonderment.
Harry Rolnick
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