Fortieth Season Highlights
Reviews
Excerpted from a review by John Campbell of Artsong Update
With Andrey Kasparov as new artistic director this season, the
Norfolk Chamber Consort has presented four rich, complex and
diverse programs... Kasparov's ability to create variety with a
framework like Bach and the Twentieth Century shows us what an
international and intergenerational perspective he brings to the
task. We look forward to next season, wondering what new musical
paths we will explore together.
Twenty-four musicians were part of the carefully designed and
wonderfully executed concert at the acoustically superb Chandler
Recital Hall on March 30, 2009 titled Bach and the Twentieth
Century. The program opened with nine selections from the Notebook
for Anna Magdalena Bach featuring soprano Billye Brown Youmans,
alto Lisa Coston, tenor Kerry Jennings and bass Steve Kelley with
redoubtable baroque master Allen Shaffer at the harpsichord.
Reviews cont'd
Listening to recordings is fine but it does not compare to
seeing the music constructed note-by-note and phrase-by-phrase.
Bach Concerto in D minor for harpsichord and strings BWV 1052 was
played superbly on Baroque instruments. Shaffer on harpsichord
played in dialogue with string quartet: Susan Via and Susannah
Livingston on violins, Jenny Edenborn on viola and Jeffrey Phelps
on cello.The little ornaments he played to enhance the harpsichord
sound caught my attention and added to the delight of Bach's music.
In conversation we learned that this was Mr. Phelps' first
experience with a Baroque cello.
The third movement dances. The pacing is fast but not rushed and
I close my eyes and see dancers in a blue sky on a sunny, warm day.
The tension in the music has me worrying that they might fall. The
musiclal resolution has me seeing a soft landing. The peice
finishes in a blaze of glory.
A capacity audience shared a building excitement, anticipating
two modern works by composers who were inspired by Bach. Luigi
Dallapiccola (1904-1975) wrote Quaderno musicale Annalibera in
1952. It was a challenging solo piece for pianist Oksana Lutsyshyn
and for her listeners. The first of eleven short sections, titled
Simbolo (Symbol) is spare and exploratory in feeling, as if the
composer is searching for musical possibilities in the twelve-tone
series. Overall it is a highly structured intellectual piece. The
second movement, Accenti (Accents) has a lively atonal opening,
only to turn moody and introspective. Contrapunctus Primus (First
Canon) is a dark shadow of Bach's musical language. Impressions
continue to flow in the music: Linee (Lines) is fragments of sound.
Here loudness and intensity fluctuate, heavy moods, long pauses,
all of this carefully constructed. Rhythms are flexible, lines are
angular, textures intricately organized. And it all ends abruptly.
Ms. Lutsyshyn's playing was convincing, powerful and decisive. I
would like to hear the piece again. I found it difficult to digest
such newness in one hearing.
