As a period continues

We often use the term chamber music for smaller groups playing older music in smaller spaces but when I heard Austral Harmony at Sally and Peter's Greenaway studio I felt it like never before.  They played earlier music, Bach with original instruments, as a trio in a small space and the intimacy was immense, if intimacy can be immense.  It's not as if there was not a decent audience and a few mic stands, but the closeness and the tone of these instruments, baroque oboe/recorder/oboe da caccia, baroque violin, harpsichord, and the immediacy of performance and casual interactions were different.  Austral Harmony was on a tour of various Australian cities while Jane is visiting from the UK and Canberra got a weekend of Bach performances.  I caught Jane at Wesley on Wednesday, but only one performance over the weekend.  This was called Bach Obbligato and they performed selections that they had workshopped just hours before.  I'd learnt something of obbligato, the necessity of the obbligato parts and presumably a flexibility with parts not so defined.  It's a pointer to improvisation practised in that era, with figured bass and basso continuo and maybe more.  All fascinating and prompted by the immediacy of this chamber music experience with these knowledgeable exponents.  But a note on the performers.  These were confident in interplay, aptly solid and throaty in tone, at least for the violin and oboes -  the harpsichord was more tinkly - and all confident in interplay.  Capable proponents of period music and deeply satisfying and informative for that.

Austral Harmony performed Bach at the Greenaway Studio.  AH comprised Jane Downer (baroque oboes, recorder), Margaret Caley (baroque violin) and Phillip Gearing (harpsichord).  An attendee from the preceding workshop played flute on an opening piece from St Matthew Passion but I missed his name.

The visiting troubadour

What is it about early music that's so welcoming.  Do we have it in our bones the memory of the occasional troubadour visit?  They didn't have the Berlin Phil online to listen to and watch any instant.  Their experience was a visiting musician for a dance occasionally with baroque or earlier instruments but so earthy and so welcomed.  Austral Harmony visited and they were somewhat like that.  AH is Jane Downer with her fellow musicians in each town, in Canberra with Ariana Odermatt.  We heard the whistle tones of descant and tenor (alto?) recorders and the reedy tone of the baroque oboe along with the plucky harpsichord.  Lovely.  There's always a tune by that most prolific composer, Anon.  Here it was the story of a storm downing a wind vane on St Paul's Cathedral.  Then some Handel sounding unusually early and William Babel and two tunes of considerable imagery by Geminiani, Sleepy body and Auld Bob Maurice.  The troubadour's visit was much appreciated.

Austral Harmony performed at Wesley.  AH comprised Jane Downer (recorder, baroque oboe) and Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord).

Homecomings

It never ceases to amaze me when I come across musicians with grand CVs, but I shouldn't be so surprised.  They pop up often enough here in Australia.  In this case, it was Jane Downer playing with Ariana Odermatt at Wesley.  I was a bit taken back when I read her bio including locals like the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra and Canberra Bach Ensemble and Pinchgut but also extravagant foreign names like Concerto Koln and Academy of Ancient Music and Oslo Barokkorkester and more.  I guess she studied in Europe and worked there for some time.  She played recorder (tenor or alto?) and baroque oboe with accompaniment from Ariana, although they both played occasional solo pieces in opening and closing side "panels" (it was a Bach Tritych) with a larger central panel as BWV529 Trio played on recorder and harpsichord.  That delicate sound of the harpsichord and the airy recorder and flatulent baroque oboe were all delightful and so capably played.  This is recorder as I seldom hear it.  And it sounded authentic, of the period.  At least I guess so.  So, a discovery but also a hugely pleasurable little concert.

Austral Harmony performed a Bach Triptych at Wesley.  Austral Harmony were Jane Downer (recorder, baroque oboe) and Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord).

Bush baroquing

It's strangely apt to go off to the bush to hear baroque. It's quiet and that seems right, although baroque towns would probably not have been quiet. Richard and Joan Milner have a suite of period instruments in their music room and are generous sponsors of concerts for charity. This one was Peter Hagen on harpsichord and a lovely little baroque organ with Jane Downer on baroque oboe and oboe d'amore. JS Bach was there, but also son CPE and students, Krebs and Homilius, and Homelius' student, Tag. It's interesting to hear the various composers and get some sense of change through their styles. Peter started with a Telemann Prelude, not on the program, in memory of the organ builder who had died recently. Telemann lived contemporaneously with Bach but this piece felt earlier, with single note lines in counterpoint on a lovely chamber organ. The tone was small and delicate, soft at the lower end and flut-ish above. Then Bach's Fantasia Jesu, meine freude, with long oboe notes over more chordal keyboard. Then two pieces by his student, Krebs, in the JS Bach tradition, but clearly lacking his brilliance to my ears. I liked Krebs' second piece, a chorale on Jesu, meine freude, which was again single note counterpoint. Homilius was another student of Bach's. His Sonata à oboe solo col basso in F major was longer and more complex, comprising four movements. Then CPE Bach's Fantasia for keyboard. Interestingly, it's in C# minor (an unfavourite key in this household). To me this was showy; played with heavy chords, whispy runs and pensive passages in response, overt emotions. Then JS Bach Trio in D minor BWV527 in 3 movements. Apparently CPE had said that music like this would forever be popular, but Beyoncé is more popular now; music always passes. Then two Krebs to finish with. Baroque is always a pleasure and we are hearing it increasingly on original instruments, paler but more intimate than their concert cousins. It's a lovely way to pass an afternoon in the bush, with young Aussie bush in the background and old European sounds in the foreground.

Austral Harmony are Jane Downer (baroque oboe, oboe d'amore) and Peter Hagen (harpsichord, baroque organ).