Sacramento Davis Area Early Music Musicians

Review: Consort celebrates work of Telemann

By William Glackin -- Bee Critic at Large
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Monday, June 3, 2002

Georg Philipp Telemann is certainly not a forgotten man. In fact, when he and J.C. Bach [sic] were contemporaries in 18th century Germany, Telemann was definitely the more famous composer. But not today.

That's why it was news when the newly formed Sacramento Early Music Consort announced they would devote an entire concert Saturday night to Telemann's music. There wasn't any anniversary. They just wanted more people to realize how good his music is.

The size of the crowd that "Tapestry of Telemann" drew to the Trinity Lutheran Church on 27th Street was respectable. And the case the likably able performers made for Telemann's music was excellent. The sounds were not only well made but tonally not the everyday kind, coming from soprano and alto recorders, wooden flute and baroque bassoon, in addition to harpsichord, violins, two violas and the human voice.

The loud applause made for an auspicious debut for the Consort's summer season, which was to have included a second performance Sunday, as well as a third one at 8 p.m. June 22 in St. Augustine Episcopal Church, Chico. It also serves notice of a planned performance of Handel's oratorio, "Solomon," in February. A location was not mentioned but music director Kirsten Zadekia Xanthippe invited attention to the group's website, http://home.pacbell.net/zadekia/earlymusic.html.

Saturday's concert was a refreshing and welcome reminder of the lively appeal of Telemann's music at its best. As Xanthippe mentioned in her introduction, there was a lot of it. A former child prodigy, Telemann's output as a composer was prodigious -- astonishing is a word commonly linked to his name.

The concerto for flute and recorder in E minor (Heidi Pintner and Kathryn Canan) was a strong beginning for the performance. Like most of what followed, it was set on the foundation laid down by the harpsichord of Marta Belen, one of Sacramento's best known and most able musicians, and the cello of Michael Lawson and the bassoon of Robin Houston as the rest of the continuo.

The fast movements of the quartet for two flutes, cello and continuo, titled "Tafelmusik (Table Music)" was a good example of the composer's charm and life. At the cello, Lawson's fearless sense of the rhythms was invaluable all evening.

Some idea of Telemann's range could be measured in all the pieces that followed, which included brief solo quotes from the (short) Masses by Xanthippe, a strong contralto; an unaccompanied Fantasie in E minor for Pintner, a brilliant, steady performance of a common Baroque form; and another common form, a Trio Sonata for Canan, Lawson, his wife Lisa, the lead violinist, and Belen.

After the intermission, there was a suite of Water Music to compare to all of Handel's work in that vein, likewise appealing. Baroque is back, you could say, and Telemann with it.

Distant Oaks' CDs and Reviews

Sacramento Baroque Ensemble's CD

MASS BY 17TH CENTURY'S MUFFAT PROVES A REAL FIND

Monday, November 20, 2000

By William Glackin Bee Critic at Large

Concert Review

The Early Music movement has introduced a lot of rare and neglected talents to the public in recent years. If you've got a little list of such, here's a composer to add: Georg Muffat.

Primarily an instrumental composer of the late 17th century, he wrote only one mass that has survived. Recently rediscovered in manuscript form, it was the remarkable centerpiece of concerts Friday night in the Davis Community Church and Saturday in Sacramento's St. Paul's Episcopal Church by a large array of singers and instrumentalists - the UC Davis Early Music Ensemble and Baroque Ensemble; St. Paul's Compline Choir and guests from the Bay Area, all conducted by David Nutter, director of the UCD Early Music Ensemble.

It proved to be not only a very grand work, lasting a total of 51 minutes, but a fascinating one as well, in the way it reflected what is called the Salzburg tradition of such works but also in the way it was different from the better-known examples of that tradition by Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

This was its West Coast premiere. It was a great success with Friday's audience, which essentially filled the church.

Of Scottish ancestry but born in Savoy (now part of southeast France) in 1653, dying 50 years later in Passau, Muffat studied with Jean Baptiste Lully and Arcangelo Corelli but considered himself a German composer. Musicians got around a lot in those days, seeking a living with the nobility. The rich, noble archbishops of Salzburg took him on as their organist and composer when he was only 25. It seems unlikely that this mass, which he named "In Labore Requies" (a quote from the familiar sequence for Pentecost, "Veni Sancte Spiritus"), was the only vocal music he wrote, but if it is, it's an impressive example of his talent.

The way he uses the two vocal choirs, one alternating with the other, creates a constant variety, the smaller group sounding more like a colloquy of soloists. The three instrumental choirs also are collections of different musical colors. A total of five trumpets, two of them the long Baroque variety, create brightness in the opening of the movements (especially the Gloria and Credo), and the addition of timpani make these moments grand.

Vocal phrases create rolling fugal echoes; the work is full of counterpoint, which makes for a feeling of action. And there are moments of beautiful solo melody, although none of the extended length to be found in the next century in the masses of Mozart and Haydn. But the sum of all these characteristics is an uncanny impression that they were all stages in the development of the same tradition.

It came as no surprise to learn that this mass was once in Haydn's own collection of music at Esterhazy.

Nutter conducted with a spirit appropriate to the celebrations at Salzburg mentioned in Friday's program note, and violinist Michael Sand and organist Phebe Craig, who direct the UCD Baroque Ensemble, invoked that Salzburg grandeur with excellent performances of shorter works by Muffat's colleague there at the time, the virtuoso violinist and composer Heinrich Biber.

Gilbert Cline did fine work along with Craig on a Henry Purcell Sonata for long trumpet.

Christmas at the Castle

Early & Enthusiastic Endorsements of a unique CD

From Gene Murrow, former president of the American Recorder Society, Ossining, NY:

I listened to {the CD} right away with my wife Susan. We both agreed it was an unusually beautiful program, and well played. It's the perfect answer to the perennial question from friends and neighbors "You play in a recorder consort?? What does that sound like???" It really is a remarkable example of what a consort with a creative director can do. I'd like to order 2 more for gifts, and the book of arrangements you indicate is available.

From the Von Huene Workshop, Brookline, MA:

"Christmas at the Castle" is not your normal Christmas CD. Upon first listening you are struck with the ambiance of jingling bells, horse hooves and the opening of the castle gates. What waits for you inside is a collection of new arrangements by consort leader Richard Geisler* of tunes both old and new, obscure and familiar. Along with the favorites of What Child Is This? and O Come, O Come, Emanuel are less well-known melodies of Fum, Fum, Fum and There Was a Pig. As I said, this is not your normal Holiday CD. The Blue Oak Consort has included with their arrangements for recorders, lute, cello and voices, several moments of festive winter sounds including laughing children, church bells. Even a jolly Santa Claus makes an appearance. Particularly interesting is Geisler's arrangement of the classic Jingle Bells, which is given an English twist, making it an excellent choice for your own consort's Winter concert encore. *All arrangements on this CD are available as sheet music.

From Kate Vance, 4th grade teacher, San Diego

I received the CD….and while my fourth grade daughter and I were decorating for Halloween I put it on for a listen. With the first bell {At the start a bell in the castle tower rings} she came running in-to the room to see what I was listening to. By the second tune she was dancing through the house, and by the fourth number she had gone to get her school flute and was attempting to play along. This is definitely a keeper! As soon as I talk to the fourth grade fundraising group we will be placing an order.

From Prof. Lavern Wagner, Quincy Early Music Consort, Quincy, Indiana:

I have listened to your CD, "Christmas at the Castle." First of all, it is unique in the approach with such pleasing Christmasy sound effects.The arrange ments also give a fresh lustre to some familiar tunes I especially like all the moving parts in the arrange- ments which drive them along at a merry clip. Right now my son, Gerry has the CD and is listening to it. The other members of the Quincy Early Music Consort want to hear it also.

From George Kelischek, Kelischek Workshop: music sales and publications, Brasstown, NC:

Receiving your new CD was a pleasant surprise! I still have your nice arrangements of American tunes from the turn of the century ringing in my ears which I bought a few years ago. I have played your CD a couple of times and come to the conclusion that it is a worthy endeavor. Your arrangements, as ALWAYS, are excellent! I am sure you will sell a lot of this CD and hope- fully make more. At this time I like to order for resale in our store: 20 copies of your CD.

"Christmas at the Castle", $12.95 + $2 post Order from: Richard Geisler, Village & Early Music Society15181 Ballantree Ln., Grass Valley, CA 95949 530/477-2293 richgeis@jps.net Please make check to Richard Geisler