SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Juilliard Baroque: Monica Huggett (director and violin), Phoebe Carrai (cello), Robert Mealy (viola), Sandra Miller (flute), Robert Nairn (double bass), Cynthia Roberts (violin),  Gonzalo Ruiz (oboe), Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord). Paul Hall, Juilliard School, New York City, 20.10.2010 (SSM)

W. A. Mozart: Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285
F. A. Hoffmeister: Double Bass Quartet No. 2 in D Major
Tomasso Giordani: String Quartet in A Major, Op. 2
W. A. Mozart:  Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K. 370/368b    
J. C. Bach: Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Violin and Harpsichord in D Major, Op. 22, No.2

Congratulations! But to whom and why so soon? Because my first prize goes not to the music and musicians, but to the “Notes on the Program” written by the violist Robert Mealy.  They are an example of how all program notes should be written: clear, concise and to the point. Mr. Mealy focuses briefly on the history of the composer, then the history of the piece and ends with a short discussion of the music itself.

In fact, some of the above attributes can be applied to the pieces played in tonight's program: “clear, concise and to the point.” The opening Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285 by Mozart revealed no great secrets. Tempi were moderate, compared to those of other period instrument groups, and traditional was the word that came to mind about this performance. It seems strange that a word that is usually applied to non-early-instrument performances should be apt for the playing of this quartet, but historically informed performances (HIP) go back so many decades now that one can certainly break out the adjectives  “traditional,” “modern” and even “radical” as valid descriptions of any given performance, group or conductor. To put this in perspective, let's just say Nicholas Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington and Christoper Hogwood are traditional; Fabio Biondi, Andrea Marcon and Jean-Christophe Spinosi are modern (or are of the Italian school if you will); and Piers Adams (“Red Priest”) is an exemplar of the radical side of HIP. Liberties are taken with the composers' scores by these modern and radical groups not only in their use of extreme tempi but also of non-indicated or exaggerated ornaments and cadences, violins being attacked sul ponticello or sul tasto, and instrumental codas ending with unmarked diminuendos and ritardandos . These performances are as distant from the composer's original intentions as was Leonard Bernstein's recording with the NY Philharmonic of concerti by Vivaldi.

I have no complaints about the Juilliard Baroque’s traditional performance of the Mozart Flute Quartet. There is enough loveliness in the piece to overcome any style of performance (well, maybe not by “The Red Priest”). The soulful second movement in B minor (a key rarely used by Mozart) is played pizzicato by the strings and is one of those great melancholy slow movements like the second-movement Adagio of the Piano Concerto No. 21.  The wonderful transition, marked by a full measure's rest and designated attacca, that ends the second movement continues to delight and was handled by the group with great aplomb.  The repeated five-note bird-like twitter,  playable by the flute but given by Mozart to the violin, is one those little touches that no one but Mozart could do to make this phrase stand out; and stand out it did with the richness of Ms. Huggett’s Baroque violin.

The second piece on the program was written by F.A. Hoffmeister, a contemporary of Mozart. This quartet is really a showpiece for the double bass with Robert Nairn frequently reaching down to the bridge to reach the highest notes attainable.  Playing this human-sized instrument with a large German bow, Mr. Nairn moved the double bass center stage from its usual place as part of the background support group known in early music as the basso continuo. It was impossible to focus one's eyes and ears on any of the other performers as they were left most of the time to be mere accompanists.  The violin occasionally raised its voice, but aside from the opening measures of the Menuetto, it and its fellow strings realized their voices would not be heard.

Tommaso Giordani (basically unknown to all of us except the writers of Grove's who found 1500 words to say about him) is often listed as the composer of  Caro Mio Ben. It is uncertain whether in fact it was this Giordani or a totally unrelated Giuseppe Giordani or Tommaso's father whose name was also Giuseppe.  A composer mostly of comic operas, Tommaso also wrote some instrumental music. There is a lyric quality about the String Quartet played here, which as Mr. Mealy points out in his program notes reveals “a new spirit of Romanticism in the midst of the balanced elegance of galant style.”  There are some quite touching forays into minor keyed themes, particularly in the first movement. Some difficult violin passages were, as expected, performed with ease by Ms. Huggett. In the second movement Mr. Mealy finally got a couple of minutes in the sun, with a few virtuosic measures. Giordani is certainly ripe for rediscovery, with just a handful of recordings devoted to his music available. 

Mozart's Oboe Quartet, written a few years after the first Flute Quartet, was played lovingly by Gonzalo Ruiz. The Baroque oboe does not produce as piercing a sound as its modern-day keyed descendant.  Both the recorder and the oboe were loud enough to be heard in this small venue but might have problems reaching parts of the audience in a larger theater. Mr. Ruiz clearly articulated the string of 16^th notes in the first movement right before the tricky change in meter,  with the oboe playing in 6/8 time while the others are simultaneously playing in 3/4 time. This is perhaps one of the first uses of polyrhythm.  Mozart does something similar at the end of the first act of Don Giovanni when three different bands play in three different meters. In music history this probably doesn't occur again until Charles Ives writes his polyrhythmic version of multiple marching bands in several of his works.

The final piece, a quintet by J.C. Bach, included everyone who previously performed except for the double bassist and added the services of harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss.  I must say, I rued the moment I saw that this was the only role Mr. Weiss was to play in this program.  I consider him one of the lost treasures of American Baroque keyboard players who emigrated to Europe.  This includes the late Scott Ross, William Christie and Alan Curtis among others.  Although Mr. Weiss’s part was small, he did contribute to the vibrant performance of a piece that shows again J.C. Bach’s influence on Mozart: listen to the second movement, for example, and its use of pizzicato. Bach's forte was the concertante style of the Mannheim school and he excelled at that school’s use of colorful instrumental combinations. The piece played today was very much in the style of the many sinfonia concertantes he wrote. These were typically concerti for more than one instrumental soloist, giving each musician time to play with or against each other. This final work in the program was an excellent choice for each talented musician to display his or her considerable abilities.

Stan Metzger