Bass and beyond

Pippa Macmillan was coming to play with John and Marie in Apeiron Baroque and I was in.  Pippa is now in Australia but is quite and international, with degrees for the Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard and appointed Professor of baroque double bass at the RSM, that school next to that other Albert Hall, and performing with Tapfelmusik, Florilegium, Austn Brandenburg Orch, Austn Haydn Ens and the rest.  She was playing violone with the gut strings and those gut frets and a big Dragonetti period bow.  But how lithe and quick and unrelenting in her drive.  No slowing down with this rhythm section!  Otherwise, this was a joy of baroque historical overview with a program called Something old, something new.  Thirteen composers, mostly C15th, some C16th and just two contemporaries.  Ariosti and Albinoni and a string of lesser known names, seldom encountered.  All held together with backgrounds and stories from the ever-engaging John Ma, himself of considerable European history, and Marie Searles on harpsichord, again of Euro-connections.  The group would move through tunes, with Matt Greco, again a Euro-aligned and Aussie-busy concertmaster and soprano Susannah Lawergren up front for a series of tunes, not least a fabulous modern work but Michael Bakrncev who was in the audience, and if I remember right, was listening to the world premiere of this composition, a touching song of a mother laying in bed with her new child while her partner rings updates downstairs.  The text was by Cate Kennedy and the work was called Thank You.  Just glorious music.  Otherwise, the modern works were Allemande from the Jorn Borsen Harpsichord sonata and Spring from Dominick Argento Elizabethan songs.  And several Canberra advanced students invited by John and Marie, Brad Tham, Alex Monro and Dante Costa, all well known in local circles.  Just wonderful playing with that stellar bottom end, a varied and intriguing program from the ages and some delightful, welcoming patter.  Another great outing.

Apeiron Baroque performed at Wesley Church.  AB was led by John Ma (violin, MD) and Marie Searles (harpsichord, MD) with Susannah Lawergren (soprano), Matt Greco (violin), Pippa Macmillan (violone), Michael Bakrncev (composer), Dante Costa (flute), Brad Tham (violin) and Alex Munro (viola).

Crux

Australian Haydn Ensemble called the concert Heavenly Sopranos and sure enough most of the program featured a soprano and mezzo pairing.  AHE doesn't often perform with singers (3/28 posts on CJ).   This program featured several works by Johann Adolf Hasse, a renowned opera composer in his time,, Francesco Durante, a teacher of Pergolesi, and the feature, Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, who, interestingly, died young aged 28.  Stabat Mater has been around this Easter.  There were two other performances before this one.  I missed both but it was a topic of discussion.  Easter usually has a few double-ups, as there are recent historical double ups from Beethoven.  The playing was superb, as expected.  The styles of this era aren't too challenging, but I still was breathtaken by the unity of many lines, especially where all strings double timed with unison fills or where the violins expressed together or partly with viola.  There was a theorbo, too, quiet but often identifiable as a guitar plucked tone, and this bassist was hugely admiring of Pippa's obvious international experience and delicate skills.  I liked the first half but was somewhat perplexed by Stabat Mater.  Yeah, her son was going to save the world but he's still dying on the cross in front of her, so why is the music quite so light?  There are touches of tragedy but not much.  But the crux of it is the baroque and church thinking of the period, I guess.  Nonetheless, a stunning bit of performance.  Loved it.

Singers Celeste Lazarenko (soprano) and Helen Sherman (mezzo soprano) were accompanied by the Australian Haydn Ensemble at Wesley.  On the night, the AHE were Skye McIntosh (director, violin), Matthew Greco (violin), Karina Schmitz (viola), Anton Baba (cello), Pippa Macmillan (bass), Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo) and Joanna Butler (chamber organ).

Inversions

I'm pretty sure that the Romantic era came after the Classical era, but for the sake of a great initialism, I can fully understand the inversion.  The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) came to Albert Hall and we were there.  They have been around ~10 years but only first visited Canberra late last year, so this is an early relationship.  What got me was how big this group was.  I'd expected perhaps a smaller group from the full ensemble, but no, they were ~40 players, all with their period instruments, for ARCO is a HIP group in the sense of Historically Informed Performance, meaning they seek to inform themselves of the styles and sounds and approaches of musicians of the era and play thus.  I guess they succeeded.  Certainly the music sounded more soft and mellow with gut strings and early winds and brass.  And the conductor was playing along with all, so there was a gentleness and consistency from all having to feel the rhythm that bit more personally.  But I was particularly interested in bassist Pippa Macmillan with her impressive history and some previous contacts and her residence now in Australia.  She was seriously impressive, all commitment and top-of-beat speed in fast passages and strong pizz from a Cremonese bass and that cream wood, strongly arched, underhanded period (baroque? viol?) bow.  But there were a string of friends and acquaintances and faces from other ensembles to follow and the 40-part whole to imbibe.  The program was named Midsummer dreams, with Mendelssohn Midsummer night's dream overture and Beethoven Symphony no.8 (Fmaj op.83)  and Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony (no.3 Amin op.56).  The Mendelssohn appealed to me most, despite Beethoven's pride in his no.8.  B8 was more varied and challenging but the Mendelssohn was just so lyrical and picturesque and lovely.  It seemed to fit this format of period instruments in a smallish hall with a smallish audience.  And what a pleasure that was!  It's not too often you can experience a seriously capable orchestra of so many players with period instruments in such close proximity.  Albert Hall is somewhat like the rectangular European concert halls but this is smaller and closer for all.  So, a great pleasure to hear such music so well played in such intimate surroundings.  Seriously lovely.

The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) performed Mendelssohn and Beethoven at Albert Hall.  Rachael Beesley (violin) conducted and Pippa MacMillan and Chloe Ann Williamson (bass) provided the bottom end.