Salut chooks

Salut! Baroque had me thinking of a few things at their concert last night at Albert Hall. Firstly, about the history of music. This is music played with informed authenticity in the period tradition, all harpsichords and recorders and baroque instruments. They must have been an early incarnation of this practice in Australia. S!B are in their 22nd year. But what gets me is the olde sound against the dates of the composers: several were extant in the 1600s and one in the 1500s, but a good few only died in 1770 or thereabouts. JS Bach died before this, but he's somewhere in this ballpark for music and Mozart's short life was around this time, but Beethoven was born in 1770 and he's worlds away. For this, I read that various conceptions of music existed contemporaneously and change can be quick. It may not have looked like that at the time. Thinking of today, there's something pretty similar, with all manner of musics being played and even written. So it is in all art, I guess. The other thing I notice is the bowing and the approach to bass, but that's about me and my learning. But this was such a lovely concert, changing through varied combinations of players and associated sounds. The strings sounding fairly modern, the harpsichord spelling the gentler sounds of that era, the recorders sounding earlier again, but they all took similar roles at various times, with melodies passing to baroque cello or the three recorders taking melody and counterpoint roles, perhaps balancing against the strings. There was just one piece with three recorders alone, otherwise several with strings and harpsichord and with various combinations of recorders. And one with harpsichord and a conversing pair of violins. I noticed one violinist with a jazz in his background (jazz in not totally forgotten here!). Rachael Beesley was leading on violin and she was a great pleasure, committed, expressive, leading. I enjoyed the informal presence of Monika Kornel on harpsichord who would twist from the stool to be able to follow Rachael's or others' leads. Such a great little concert, close and intimate, fairly quiet but expressive and even musically humourous in the last piece with the final movement Pour la caille (=For the chook). For the chook seems a strange name for a movement after the allegros and prestos and adagios of most of the other pieces, but the recorders' squawks or clucks fitted the title. A lovely and entertaining period concert that passed so easily. BTW, the theme was how we know about musical performance in this period - partly through the treatises by various of the composers, Quantz, Avison and others.

Salut! Baroque performed Avison, Corrette, Quantz, Ortiz, Biber, Geminiani, Mattheson, Rameau and Fux at Albert Hall. Performers were Sally Melhuish, Hans-Dieter Michatz and Alicia Crossley (recorders), Rachael Beesley, Rafael Font, David Rabinovici and Meg Cohen (baroque violins), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (baroque cello) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

Concertone

Salut! Baroque's latest concert was called the Virtuosic and Innovative Concerto. From the richly informative essay in the program and also from the five (5!) concerti they performed, it was obvious that the concept and form and size of the concerto has varied over time. These were concerti from the early days when increasing musical virtuosity led to the featuring of a section against another or a few instruments in context of the tutti. The composers were CPE Bach, Telemann, Corelli, Geminiani and Vivaldi. Perhaps two (CPE Bach and Telemann) had obvious front line soloists featured somewhat like a modern concerto does. The CPE Bach featured a baroque flute; the Telemann featured two violins. These are early instruments and not always so loud - I noticed that especially with the flute - so a solo instrument is not so easy to carry off. But this was an intimate performance, as performances presumably would have been, in court, and it worked nicely. Even then the harpsichord was a struggle and the pair of recorders were not too prominent. But such lovely playing and sweet tonalities. I was particularly taken by Matthew Greco's control and tone, as well as Anita Gluyas on baroque cello. He had the lion's share of leading the performers; she had the most prominent and consistent bass-like role. They were both confident and virtuoisic. I enjoyed some momentary smiles from Anita after some particularly challenging passages. She had a veritable workout in the Geminiani, then so did fellow bassist, Tim Blomfield on bass violin (apparently tuned one tone down from the baroque cello for better access to flat keys) on Vivaldi Concerto per l'Orchestra di Dresda. We all know the final movement to this one: it's a killer with rolling tutti semiquavers seemingly endless. It must feel that way when you're playing it. But cheers to all. This was a delightful and beautifully played, intimate concert from our quarterly visitors to Albert Hall.

Salut! Baroque performed at the Albert Hall. S!B comprise Sally Melhuish and Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorders), Mikaela Oberg (baroque flute), Matthew Greco, Rafael Font, Meg Cohen and Anthony Donovan (baroque violins), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Anita Gluyas (baroque cello), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

Crossovers

It's the nature of modern society that all is relative and interchanged, We call this multiculturalism or diversity or whatever but it's such a vibrant and interesting way to live. Exposed to all manners, all matters intersecting and interacting and influencing. I was thinking of this as I read the program of Salut!Baroque. I'd had a lesson with David, CSO bassist, who mentioned he'd bought a pickup and was investigating an amp and talked of cabling piano to PC to use Sibelius. So much of classical as meaning past. Kyle, another CSO bassist, talked to me the other day of jazzer Red Mitchell; he was using strings tuned in fifths, named after RM. So much the impregnability of musical styles. Then off to record Salut!Baroque playing music that's of C17th with recorders and harpsichord and gut and even a bass violin (!) but reading of the players' history. One performed Jazz at MONA; another played the National Folk Festival; another plays Rock & Roll (viola: I think back to Mackenzie Theory, a fave prog rock band from '70s Melbourne featuring viola); another led a tango band. Sitting listening to this lovely period music is all seems incomprehensible but this is our world, and the world a modern musicians, of crossed boundaries. THis was lovely. The gentle, voice-like recorders; the plucked harpsichord and the cello between the legs. The violin family looked familiar enough although sounded softer and fatter with the gut strings and baroque bows. And that very unusual bass violin, fretless, about the size of a cello, I guess tuned in fifths. Matt Greco was the main violinist and he impressed mightily with chops and feel and plenty of bodily expression. The theme was of the master luthier, presumably Nicolò Amati, a grandson in the Amati family of Cremona, who survived the plague and passed on skills that would otherwise have been lost. Nicolo Amati taught Stradivari, Stainer and Guaneri amongst others. The music was of this period, Corelli, Albinoni, Vivaldi with other names Haym, Valentino, Bertali, Fiorenza. Nice to hear lesser names, although the better knowns are often better known for a reason. A lovely outing and presumably authentic visit to a very different era.

Salut! Baroque performed at the Albert Hall. They comprised Sally Melhuish and Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorders), Matthew Greco, Annie Gard and Julia Russoniello (baroque violins), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Belinda Mainwaring (baroque cello), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

Welcoming the German baroque

Admittedly it's the JS Bach, but I've been listening to it all day after recording Salut! Baroque on Friday night at the Albert Hall. There are all sorts of things that worked this night. They played two sets, each of Handel, Telemann, CPE Bach and JC Bach. They were in Albert Hall and it works a treat for a baroque orchestra like this. They were just lovely, playing with gentle period instruments and with some magical performers. The music was delightful. I have heard the JS Bach several times today. Just the right length for the drives I had to do, to Campbell and Queanbeyan. This was the Concerto in C minor for violin and oboe, BWV1060. Well known, not least for Philip Adams and LeninL. There were some coughs but the violin was a dream (Anna McMichael with the most delicious of bowing skills) and the bass violin is unusual but clear and fits perfectly and another Anna, this time Fraser, was singing and the whole band flowed with lively, mobile energy. This was music of a period and place, of baroque Germany, played with understanding and historical awareness (I have yet to read the notes on the relationships of these four). These days, a period concert is a lesson in history as well as a listening experience and this was one. Lovely band, visiting quarterly, well attended. Salut! Baroque are a pleasure from a now-distant yet strangely relevant era.

Salut! Baroque performed at the Albert Hall and comprised Anna Fraser (soprano), Sally Melhuish (recorder), Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorder), Jane Downer (baroque oboe), Anna McMichael (baroque violin), Meg Cohen (baroque violin), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

Feeling early

Salut! Baroque are will of the wisps, slinking on stage in formal black, long dresses, unspoken, changing their lineup throughout the performance, various mixes of baroque strings, voices, oboe, harpsichord, recorders. This is genuinely early music, not ancient but European and feeling before Bach. This program was called Mr Purcell's farewell and featured three pieces written by friends, John Blow, Henry Hall and Jeremiah Clarke, at Purcell's untimely death, aged 35. There were some new names and even new vocabulary here. The piece by William Croft was a Ground in C minor. Ground as in Ground bass, another word for Basso ostinato, a recurring pattern. Or Matthew Locke's Curtain Tune in C major, obviously meaning an opening number, perhaps short. I loved the bass and soprano singing, often together, with dispersed pitches and unquestioned harmonies. The harpsichord that was gentle but omnipresent. The recorders of moderate volume but definitional of the period. It was my occasional revisit to the bass violin or baroque cello, tuned in fifths with the high string matching the violin's low G string. I'm learning bowing at the moment so I was particularly taken by Matthew Greco leading the violins with wonderfully fluent and expressive bowing. The music was lovely, in two sets. I enjoyed the vocals and even chuckled at some in English and was taken back to a past that seems very early, and they'd left. On the day, these were performers of few words, letting the music speak for itself and for Purcell and his contemporaries. Otherly and dignified, grounded and early.

Salut! Baroque performed at the Albert Hall and will return for another three concerts in the 2015 program. Salut! comprised Josie Ryan (soprano), Alexander Knight (bass), Sally Melhuish (recorder), Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorder), Jane Downer (baroque oboe), Matthew Greco (baroque violin), Julia Russoniello (baroque violin), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin), Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

G'day

We might say g'day but the French say Salut. I thought it was from Salute, or health, and etymologically it is, but in this incarnation, it's like Italian Ciao, a general greeting , meaning Hello or Goodbye. Handy. We heard Salut! Baroque at the Albert Hall. They are a baroque group playing period instruments and they are from Sydney, so Hello and Goodbye is apt. But we'll see them again; they visit quarterly.

Albert Hall is probably the best venue for this music in Canberra. It seems of another era; it's reverberent and has touches of decoration and deep velvet curtains. Not sure it's the best for acoustics though. I liked that we formed a semicircle around the players, but I didn't always hear so well. It was only confirmed when Hans-Dieter Michatz spoke to introduce the csakan, a very long instrument that sounded all the world to me like a descant recorder. (But then, I am not intimate with the descant recorded to hear the difference). It's an impressive looking thing, about 1.5 metres long, black and pointy at the bottom, flat beak at the top with a recorder-like ramp and window, as I could make out. There was another new instrument for me, the bass violin. Tuned in 5ths with the open high string the same as the violin. Also called a baroque cello or, interestingly, a single bass. And played with a baroque bow, but underhand, smaller, but held like a German bow on a double bass. Otherwise, the harpsichord, strings, bows, gut and the rest were as expected.

There was music, too, that was obscure. Schütz and Krahmer and Quantz were new names to me. The Handel, CPE and JS Bach and Telemann and Buxtehude are known well enough. Some of the music was well known, too. JS Bach's Oboe Concerto in Dmin, Handel's Lascia ch'io pianga and CPE Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in Dmin. The mix of musicians changed constantly, so the sound also varied. I felt they got the hang of the acoustics in the second set, so lines and interplay was more easy to follow. It had been a bit mushy or indeterminate at the start although the bass violin always cut through. This was also a hot day and Albert Hall is not airconditioned. Another aspect of authentic performance (as well as the tuning). Interesting for the voice, gently attacked but firm and loud. And the three recorders (two and the csakan) were unusual. I felt that Salut! Baroque has a steady but aging followers. Sad, this. We live in a busy present without sense of history and a radical individualism is promoted endlessly. Saying hello to a bit of our past is a worthy remedy.

Salut! Baroque are Jane Sheldon (soprano), Sally Melhuish (recorder), Hans-Dieter Michatz (recorder, csakan), Jane Downer (baroque oboe), Anna McMichael (baroque violin), Julia Russoniello (baroque violin), Valmai Coggins (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (baroque cello), Monika Kornel (harpsichord).