The Music City Baroque was “Unabashedly European” at the Second Presbyterian
On a lovely 80-degree afternoon, the doors of Second Presbyterian Nashville opened to welcome guests to Music City Baroque’s spring concert. Titled “Unabashedly European: Chamber Music from the Court, Church, and Coffeehouse,” the program promised an exciting selection of works from both prominent and lesser-known composers of the Baroque era. Upon entering the sanctuary at Second Presbyterian, one is struck by the beauty of the space. The room is quite deep, with a high lofted ceiling and wood floors and chancel were performers were staged, creating a wonderful listening experience. The wood surfaces combined with the geometry of the room results in a bright and pleasantly reverberant quality to the sounds within the space. The ensemble was led by concertmaster Maria Romero Ramos, Assistant Professor of the Practice in violin and baroque violin at Vanderbilt University, along with harpsichordist and featured performer, Malcolm Matthews, who serves on the organ and harpsichord faculty at the University of North Texas.
The program began with Vivaldi’s Concerto Ripieno for Strings in A Major. This three-movement work follows the characteristic fast-slow-fast arrangement of many baroque concertos. The opening movement, “Allegro molto,” was spry and playful, and the ensemble managed the stark dynamic and characteristic contrasts within this first movement with considerable success. I was also impressed by the ensemble balance among the sections. The adagio was sorrowful and pensive, and players negotiated the frequent rests and spaces within the movement quite well. The vertical alignment of the ensemble was never lost. The final movement of this work, “Allegro,” was plain-old fun and contained jubilant, spritely patter-like runs throughout the movement. The combination of the familiar composer and shorter selection, with the work bookended by two fast movements, made for a strong selection to open the program.
An interesting performance component that I had not considered was how the baroque instruments, specifically stringed instruments, would respond to the climate. The process of tuning and re-tuning the instruments in between programmed works was much more tedious and laborious than one usually expects with contemporary instruments. With the use of the baroque instruments, I would also posit the assumption that the players may have been using gut strings on their instruments, as opposed to steel or synthetic material. These gut strings have a propensity for falling out of tune much faster than their counterparts. During one particularly finicky bout of tuning frustrations, concertmaster Maria Romero joked to the audience “come for the music, stay for the tuning!” And I assure you, the afternoon’s music was well-worth staying for the tuning!
Next was another work from Mr. Vivaldi, his Concerto Madrigalesco for Strings and Continuo in D minor. I found the two highlights of the work to be the first and second movement. The opening “Adagio” was beautiful and full of lament, containing rich suspensions and delicious tensions. Matthews’ phrasing in this movement was finely expressive, and I very much enjoyed the way in which Vivaldi utilized space and pauses within the accompaniment to create brief moments of micro-drama. The second movement, “Allegro,” is a double fugue which reworks material from Vivaldi’s Kyrie, RV 587 (see the work’s third and final movement). The “Allegro” contains a whirlwind of counterpoint and was truly thrilling to listen to. I especially loved the spirit in which cellist Chris Stenstrom and bassist Evan Bish gave to the basso continuo!
Following the two selections by Vivaldi was Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Trio Sonata No. 3 in D Major. Jacquet de la Guerre was a French composer and child prodigy that came from a family of acclaimed musicians. She, unlike many of the women composers who were her contemporaries, enjoyed a fair amount of notoriety for her works during her lifetime. Music City Baroque’s setting of this trio sonata featured Jessica Dunnavant and Rama Kumaran on the baroque flute, with Stenstrom on cello and Matthews at the harpsichord. This work was absolutely gorgeous. Flautists Jessica Dunnavant and Rama Kumaran played with a beautiful sense of line, and the two of them held a very tender and empathetic musical rapport. Both players listened exceptionally well to each other, in addition to the ensemble as a whole. One moment that caught my attention was in movement two, where the cello doubled the left hand of the harpsichord in an impressive ascending run. Stenstrom’s execution of this passage was extremely precise. Programmatically, the trio sonata served as a very nice palette cleanser, introducing the new texture of the baroque flute within a much smaller chamber setting. The four musicians in this ensemble played wonderfully, and Jacquet de la Gurre’s Trio Sonata No. 3 had me eager to do more research and further listening of her works!
The fourth selection of the afternoon was from Marin Marais’s Suite à 3 in E minor, ‘Pièces en Trio.’ I knew we were in for a treat when I saw Idalynn Besser take the stage with their viola de gamba! This work was another quartet, set for violin, baroque flute, viola de gamba, and harpsichord. Maria Romero quickly commanded everyone’s attention in the first movement with her gorgeous, clean tone soaring above the rest of the ensemble. Her phrasing and interpretation of the music possessed such a patient and earnest quality. It was splendid. During the first movement of the Marais suite,“Prélude lentement,” I very much enjoyed the frequent pairing of the quartet into two separate subgroups. The pairing of flute and violin alternated between passages of lush harmony and buoyant, call-and-response-like episodes, while the viola de gamba and harpsichord provided the foundation for the harmonic structure. The “Rondeau” stood out as well, including some ear-catching register switches for the viola de gamba. This particular passage is an approach to a cadence, where a hurried triplet stair-stepping figure crescendos up to an apex and falls stepwise, finally outlining a cadential six-four and dominant to tonic. The final standout movement was the menuet, which served as a lovely punctuation for the work.
It wouldn’t be a baroque music concert without some J.S. Bach. The entrée of the afternoon was Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in G Minor, BWV 1058. The first tutti of the “Allegro” was appropriately big and ceremonious, and I simply couldn’t get enough from the lower strings here! There were some occasional intonation discrepancies from the middle voices of the ensemble, but for a challenging passage such as this, that is more or less to be expected. Matthews’ interpretation during the solo passages was very tasteful. I loved how he allowed the music to breathe! The introduction to the “Andante” was simply stunning. Matthews’ playing and use of ornamentation during this passage had a conversational and almost wistful character to it. I was further impressed by his articulation and voicing of the right and left hand, which sounded as two completely independent voices. His technical mastery of both his instrument and the music was evident. This was probably my favorite movement of the work. The “Allegro assai,” in a dance-like 9/8 time, featured a lovely call and response between the harpsichord and the upper strings. I was impressed by the consistent intonation in the violins during their longer passage of slurred eighth notes. Matthews made light work of the harpsichord solos in this movement, with dazzling flurries of notes running up and down the keyboard, executing the passages with extreme precision. It was a wonderful way to cap off the work.
The last work on the program was Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6 No. 4. The scurrying lines in the “Allegro” traded between the violin and violin two were tremendously fun. With the ensemble’s staging, these players were across from each other, creating a very neat, ping-ponging stereo image of hearing a phrase in one ear and hearing it repeated in the opposite ear by another player across the stage. The one thought going through my head during this movement was how much I would have loved to have the score with me! The adagio was sorrowful and was punctuated by a gorgeous cadence, and the “Vivace” featured a pleasant duo between the cello and concertmaster. The final “Allegro” contained more passing of lines in the violins, considerably challenging but executed well! There was some very nice dynamic contrast employed in the repeated sections that kept listeners on their toes. The coda at the end of the movement was frantic and thrilling, and a very rewarding way to conclude both the Concerto Grosso and the afternoon’s program.
Music City Baroque packed a heavy punch with their program, presenting six wonderful works to the audience in just over an hour! Soloists shined, chamber groups gelled quite well together, and the ensemble in full had a great sound. The diversity and range of the program’s contents kept things fresh and exciting. I would encourage any and all fans of baroque and early music to check out their work! You can join Music City Baroque’s mailing list to stay up to date on their upcoming concerts and performances.
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Ethan Morrell is a composer and audio engineer from Nashville, Tennessee. He is currently finishing up his Bachelor’s degree at MTSU. In his free time, Ethan enjoys attending concerts, cooking, and following NBA basketball. He is also a co-host of The Fresh Faced Filmbro podcast.
That sounds like a fantastic concert! I love how they focused on music from different European settings – it really highlights the diverse styles of the period.