SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Purcell, Corelli, Handel, and Rameau: Nicholas McGegan, cond., Joseph Adam, organ, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 15.1.2010 (BJ)

For sheer joie de vivre, a concert of baroque music conducted by Nicholas McGegan is hard to beat. The English-born maestro returned to Benaroya Hall for another invigorating swing through the music of the 18th century, and a good time was had by all.

It was revealing that the Seattle Symphony’s resident organist, Joseph Adam, soloist in two of Handel’s concertos for his instrument, also played the harpsichord continuo in the other three works on the program–not by any means normal practice for a concerto soloist. He remarked afterwards, “I’m a glutton for punishment–but I just love playing for this man,” and a similar feeling emerged from the convivial proceedings on stage, to be mirrored by reactions of unmistakable warmth from the audience. “It’s the first time,” McGegan said before heading off for his next engagement in Philadelphia, “that I’ve had a standing ovation for a work by Corelli.”

That work was the Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 4. It was played with all of McGegan’s characteristic verve and rhythmic zest, along with ample expressivity–though no unstylistic excess of vibrato–in the slow movements. This being one of the programs performed while half of the orchestra is away playing for Seattle Opera, the faster passages in particular allowed Emma McGrath, recently appointed the orchestra’s associate concertmaster, to display her talents in some sparkling solo work. She traded scintillating figurations with Stephen Bryant, himself enjoying a rare opportunity to lead the second violins, and cellist Eric Gaenslen was the third member of a highly accomplished concertino.

The opening and closing works on the program, suites from Purcell’s The Indian Queen and Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, served as ideal vehicles for McGegan’s sheer physical exuberance–in one or two passages, his direction evoked memories of that old Goon Show classic, The Running, Jumping, and Standing Still Film–but his balletic moves never overshadowed musical values, for they always drew appropriate responses from the orchestra. Just before the end of the Rameau, a slow movement with caressing flute and violin solos, Airs pour Zéphire, interspersed a few minutes of magical peace into the high jinks provided by David Gordon’s and Robin Peery’s brilliant solos on trumpet and piccolo.

The two Handel concertos–in F major, Op. 4 No. 5, and in B-flat major, Op. 7 No. 1–gave organist Adam the opportunity to demonstrate his command of style. The composer left a number of passages, including one whole slow movement, to be extemporized by the soloist (himself when these pieces were first heard), and Adam filled these gaps with exemplary taste, while the more fully composed fast movements brought crisp and entertaining interplay between organ and orchestra.

Bernard Jacobson