Bach Collegium Japan:
Vivaldi, Handel, Bach

Concert

With Joanne Lunn, soprano; Guy Ferber, trumpet, Masamitsu San’nomiya, oboe; Kiyomi Suga, flute; Andreas Böhlen, recorder, Ryo Terakado, violin; Yukie Yamaguchi, violin; Mika Akiha, viola; Emmanuel Balssa, cello; Frank Coppieters, contrabass

While in Seattle for a week, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Town Hall, the central and sedate setting for many interesting cultural events, to hear this concert sponsored by the Early Music Guild, which has been in operation for many years there.

Based in Tokyo and led by the adept Masaaki Suzuki who, while playing keyboard continuo provides most capable and coherent leadership, the ensemble includes an array of most competent early musicians. They support a number of outstanding soloists on this tour, which comes to Boston very soon.

Guy Ferber, on baroque trumpets (which have no valves, by the way), reaches notes with such clarity and precision and in such rapid succession it’s hard to believe. Featured in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 at the opening of the program on one kind of trumpet, he also appears significantly in Bach’s Cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen which closes the program on another kind of trumpet. One of these trumpets is round and one is more like what we think of as a modern trumpet in shape, though both unvalved and Ferber plays them with equal mastery. How does he get those incredibly high notes in tune?

Andreas Böhlen is a virtuoso recorder player who, in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Recorder, Strings and Continuo in C major, offers an incredibly mellifluous and fluid account on a very tiny recorder. One can barely imagine a hand full of fingers not tripping over itself on that little thing, but Böhlen makes it sing. Again, the notes follow so rapidly and seamlessly, one is amazed at the fluidity and the precision. He is also featured in the the opening Brandenburg Concerto with a larger recorder which provides an equally sonorous output though with a less distinctively delicate device. Again, amazing sweetness and virtuosity coming out of that incredibly little pipe!

Joanne Lunn, soprano is featured in Handel’s Gloria in B-flat major and in the Bach Cantata which closes the program, has a distinctive purity of voice with a striking clarion quality. Shaping notes with a delicacy and sculptural attention, Lunn’s capacity to produce notably focused poignancies of tone with articulate shaping are exemplary and noteworthy.

Here are a few specific notes on the program:

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Guy Ferber, trumpet; Masamitsu San’nomiya, oboe; Andreas Böhlen , recorder; Ryo Terakado, violin
Allegro: The softness and delicacy of tone is immediately apparent, with the trumpet demonstrating marked restraint, incredible virtuosity, precision on high notes, with no valves – amazing! A lovely alto sonority appears on the recorder. Measured pacing, with slow graceful steps.
Andante: Lovely, lilting sonorities of the recorder and oboe prevail. Measured pacing, with slow graceful steps.
Allegro: A beacon-like clarion call from the trumpet shines through. Oboe and trumpet run in scarily precise parallel lines. How is it possible for the trumpet to be that high and clear? Fugal complexities maintained precisely throughout.

Vivaldi, Concerto for Recorder, String, and Continuo in C major, RV 443
Andreas Böhlen , recorder
Allegro: Stately, lively opening, treble recorder running right along with it. Amazing pluck and fluidity. Glistening runs and clear washes of high soprano sound, soft and elegant. Delicious interplay of recorder and violins. Virtuosic performance by Böhlen on recorder. Entire movement shaped elegantly and gracefully.
Largo: Deliberate pacing, high but unpressured. Song of recorder like a distant nightingale. Probing cadences and graceful resolutions. Very elegant and competent playing. Beautifully executed transitional section with ornate embellishments.
Allegro Molto: Perky race unfolding into delightful sonorous chirpings of recorder. Unbelievable virtuosity. Extremely steady and competent continuous underlying ensemble, clearly maintained by Suzuki’s consistent leadership. Very rhythmically complex capping phrases near the end.

Handel, Gloria in B-flat major, HWV deest
Joanne Lunn, soprano
No winds!
Gloria in excelsis Deo: Rich contralto, warm and supple. Subtle binding of vocal forms, superb. Everything pure, exquisite trills evaporating into nothing.
Et in terra pax: Stable, stately, luscious vocals over solid and measured continuo. Transcendent and transparent voice, heartrendingly beautiful.
Laudamus te: Wonderful embellishments of glorified phrase, vocal filigree with glorious subtlety.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis: Harpsichord dark and shady entry ushers in a golden soprano.
Qui tollis peccata mundi: High held tone of hope and faith. “Have mercy upon us!” – plaintive while noble, voice rising up to sky through a smoky hole.
Quoniam tu solus sanctus: Dutiful press forward. Earthy faith. It’s enough to make one religious! Extremely adept transition, frightening precision in the strings with sonorous ornamentation by soprano.

Bach, Sonata for Flute in E minoor, BWV 1034
Kiyomi Suga, flute
Adagio ma non tanto: Mellow, subtle flute, a little light. Playing a little uncertain. Nice cello continuo.
Allegro: Brighter, lighter flute. Not quite as glistening as it might be. Balance with other instruments a bit off.
Andante: Steady, paced walk in continuo. Long, light and delicate, but a bit muted.
Allegro: Perky, but too light. Great coordination between flute and cello continuo – very good cellist.

Vivaldi, Concerto for Oboe in C major, RV 450
Masamitsu San’nomiya, oboe
Allegro Molto: Brisk, clear orchestral opening. Oboe proficiency with considerable clarity, though not terribly exciting, ornate sections carried off quite well by oboe.
Larghetto: Sweet but not quite sustained. Good, plaintive call by oboe.
Allegro: Urgency all around. Quite competent oboe, with some virtuoso passages. Quite nice, with good support by orchestra.

Cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” BWV 51
Joanne Lunn, soprano
Guy Ferber, trumpet
Jachzet Gott in allen Landen: A straight-shaped trumpet this time. Lovely penetrating clarion notes by soprano. Again, amazing precision on trumpet.
Wir beten zu dem Tempel an: Lilting melody by soprano. Distinctive continuo by cello.
Hochster, mache deine Gute: Sweet invocation, seductive in warm mellifluous slope, with luminous voice.
Sei Lob un Preis mit Ehren: Another soprano forte, with lovely interaction with violin, lovely and succinct trumpet.
Alleluja!: Lovely, singular Halleluja, with wonderfully clear flutterings of trumpet.

Try to catch the Boston concert!

– BADMan