Music for an ordered world![]() Yesterday evening at the Queen Elizabeth Hall the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - conducted by Iván Fischer and playing with original or copies of period instruments to give the music its true flavour - performed excerpts from two such operas. Rameau's Castor et Pollux - drawn, as were most operas of the time, from Classic mythology - was composed in 1737 (revised in 1754): we heard a series of dances drawn from the opera, and an aria - sung by a star in the Heavens as Castor and his brother Pollux ascend to become constellations - sung off-stage by soprano Grace Davidson. The dances still have the flavour of Renaissance dances by Praetorius and the like, with inventive and attractive construction and melodies: the aria is suitably ethereal. The second half of the concert began with a single aria, 'Se mai senti', from La clemenza di Tito (1752) by Gluck (a subject used by many other composers including Mozart): it was originally written for a castrato but in the absence of the absence (so to speak) Grace Davidson sang this wide-ranging and quietly demanding aria with a limpid beauty. Two orchestral works completed the two halves of the concert. Following the Rameau we head Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for violin, viola and orchestra (K364): Rachel Podger conducted as well as playing the violin (following the convention of the period) and Pavlo Beznosiuk played the viola - unusually tuned a semitone higher than normal: Mozart wrote the viola line in D major to have it sound in E flat with a brighter tone than usual (I shudder to think how a performer with perfect pitch would cope). It's a calm and elegant and flowing work, expressively and attractively played. While admitting Mozart to be the greater composer for his harmonic and melodic innovations, I have to say I have a softer spot for Haydn. His innovations bordered on the quirky, but there is a warmth and humanity in his music often lacking from that of the clever young Mozart. We heard Symphony No. 83 - nicknamed (though not by Haydn) 'La Poule" because of its hen-like clucking from the oboe in the first movement. The period instruments gave the work a spring so often lacking when his music is played by a large modern symphony orchestra. Posted: Thu - May 15, 2008 at 09:51 AM by Roger Wilmut |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Mar 11, 2016 05:00 PM |