Chicago Classical Review

A Vivaldi-driven orchestral program that somehow manages to shun the ubiquitous Four Seasons? The notion is practically unthinkable in our increasingly standardized concert life.

But that’s precisely the enterprise that principal guest conductor Nicholas Kraemer devised for the absorbing agenda he led with the Music of the Baroque orchestra Monday evening at the Harris Theater.

One of Vivaldi’s most original violin concertos—the Opus 9 Concerto in B minor, No. 12, from the rarely-heard set of pieces called La cetra (“The Lyre”)—anchored a program built around works by Baroque and Classical masters—including Telemann, Haydn, Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel—that pushed the development of orchestral music in striking new directions.   

And who better to make it all tick than Kraemer? It’s always a pleasure to hear what the British conductor and these fine musicians achieve together. Musical communication flows like good conversation. Kraemer’s hands, body and eyes do the work of a baton. A mere flick of the wrist or a stray hunch of the shoulders speak more eloquently than many a maestro’s frenzied gyrations.

So it was with the Vivaldi concerto, brilliantly dispatched by MOB concertmaster Gina DiBello. Its most unusual feature is the use of scordatura, an alteration of the violin’s tuning that allows the instrument to produce unusual chordal and timbral effects in addition to lyre-like string crossings.  

With Kraemer presiding discreetly at the harpsichord, DiBello brought out the music’s darkly expressive colorations and modest bravura most effectively. This was particularly true of the finale which found her skittering from one end of the fingerboard to the other with conspicuous poise and polish.

The confluence of J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 in D Major, C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in D and Telemann’s Concerto in E minor for recorder and flute made perfect sense on musical and extramusical levels. How many listeners, for example, know that Johann Sebastian chose Telemann as godfather to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel?

The Bach orchestral suite brought both vitality of rhythmic impulse and seamless fluidity of line. Kraemer secured airy textures, crisply sprung dance rhythms and subtle dynamic gradations from his ensemble of 18 players, including a prominent pair of oboes and bassoon. An amiably interactive spirit of instrumental chamber music prevailed.

The recorder virtuoso Laura Osterlund and MOB principal flute Mary Stolper played off one another beautifully in the Telemann, one of the prolific German composer’s most inventive, if less often heard, concertos. Their dulcet dialogues, with each other and the string ensemble, came off to captivating effect. Neither soloist overbalanced the other, while Kraemer kept things perking along crisply from the harpsichord continuo.

His pairing of a symphony in D major by C.P.E. Bach and Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 in D minor on the second half called to mind the composers’ central role in the evolution of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) aesthetic in late 18th century German music, with Haydn building on the achievements of his predecessor.

Eschewing both podium and score, Kraemer brought out the quirky originality of the Bach, his pair of horns adding a touch of rustic jollity to the sonic mix.

A perfect gem among the symphonies preceding his “Paris” and “London” sets, No. 80 shows Papa Haydn delighting in the expressive use of sudden musical shifts. Kraemer and the orchestra, expanded here to 22 strings and winds, allowed the typical sly humor to poke through open textures. The third-movement minuet rightly had more the feel of a stomping peasants’ dance than a ballroom, while the tricky syncopated rhythms of the finale, nicely finessed, brought the concert to a satisfying close.

Music of the Baroque’s season continues with Bach’s Mass in B minor led by Jane Glover Nov. 22 and 23. baroque.org

Posted in Performances
No Comments