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Concert Review: Brandenburg to Holberg / September 29, 2019

Review by D. S. Crafts

Bach Showpieces With A Bit Of Norway

The New Mexico Philharmonic began its third season under the direction of Music Director Roberto Minczuk on Sunday with a concert of music by J. S. Bach and Edvard Grieg. A beautiful autumn afternoon at Simms Center for the Performing Arts provided an excellent venue for this small-scaled Afternoon Classics performance.

Bringing Bach back to life in the 21st century—always a challenging project that requires much more than simply playing the notes. The music was written for an audience three centuries and one giant class leap removed. The Philharmonic, Mr. Minczuk and three esteemed soloists gave sparkling performances of three gems, full of life yet always remaining true to Bach’s genius (in both meanings of the word).

The concert opened with the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in b minor, representing the epitome of the French style that had been developing over a century and a half. A stately Ouverture gave way to a group of dances. Notable among Bach’s four Suites for its use of a solo flute against a string ensemble, the work provided a showpiece for the Philharmonic’s first-chair flutist Valerie Potter. Through most of the Suite the flute doubles the first violins, providing a bright sheen to the fabric. When her turn came, Ms. Potter gave masterful articulation to the various solos in the Ouverture and particularly in the Badinerie (a French term for “joke”).

Kathleen McIntosh, well known particularly to Santa Fe audiences for brilliant interpretations of Baroque music, took center stage for the Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in d minor.  This work, full of passionate intensity, is a virtuosic tour-de-force for the Baroque period. Sadly, the delicate harpsichord was greatly overmatched in volume by the string ensemble even when that group played pianissimo as Mr. Minzcuk instructed them to do. From where I was sitting at least, it took the greatest effort to hear the instrument in other than solo passages. This is partly the reason the work is so often performed on a piano rather than a harpsichord. What I could hear of her playing, however, was a brilliant performance of a work that Bach, also a renowned keyboard player, wrote for himself.  The exuberance of the outer movements reaped rewards in the poignancy of the Adagio.

Following the break the music turned to a major key in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. This group of six works were a kind of resume submission by the composer to a Berlin aristocrat (whose name is of no consequence). Remember, Bach was considered a third-rate composer! demonstrating all too well that those celebrated in their own time are frequently forgotten by history. Just ask Salieri, Quantz, Meyerbeer or Raff, to name only four.

Concerto No. 5 features harpsichord, flute and violin (concertmaster Krzysztof Zimowski) as soloists with its alternating tutti and solo passages. Here we were given the best opportunity to truly appreciate the talent of Ms. McIntosh as she launched into an extraordinary sixty-five-bar cadenza in the opening Allegro, the longest among all movements of the six Brandenburgs. Mr. Minczuk gave the three soloists free reign in the Affettuoso, a trio sonata with its often noted sense of sorrow. The final Allegro concluded with rhythmic vitality and buoyancy.

There are not many composers who can stand up to a pairing with Bach, but Grieg with his exquisite sense of melody and brilliant simplicity of ideas may be one. Certainly the combination on this particular concert worked wonderfully. The Holberg Suite for string orchestra consists of five movements named after Baroque dance forms. The energetic Preludium was skillfully matched by the tender Air, full of intensity, but never rushed. The rhythmically lively Rigaudon perfectly capped off not only the Suite but the entire concert.

An excellent concert not only to start the new season of the Philharmonic as well as a charming accompaniment to a beautiful fall day.

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