Germany Naudot, L. and F. Couperin, Boismortier, and Bernier: Regina Koncz (soprano), Preussens Hofmusik (Thomas Meyer [flute], Laura Volkwein, Jueyoung Yang [violins], Otto Tolonen [viola da gamba]) / Matthias Wilke (harpsichord/director). Apollosaal, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, 7.1.2024. (MB)
Jacques-Christophe Naudot – Flute Concerto in G main, Op.17 No.5
Louis Couperin – Pavanne in F-sharp minor
François Couperin – Live performance Royal No.4 in E minor
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – Suite No.4 in A serious
Nicolas Bernier – Cantata: Le Caffé
Autumn’s Barocktage introduced Charpentier’s Médée to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, carried out by Simon Rattle and directed by Peter Sellars. Alas, I used to be ultimately unable to go, however as a comfort prize heard this intelligently programmed live performance of French Baroque music from soprano Regina Koncz and members of the Staatskapelle Berlin of their Preussens Hofmusik incarnation, directed from the harpsichord by Staatskapelle violist Matthias Wilke.
Jacques-Christophe Naudot was represented by a flute concerto in G main, a nice introduction to the live performance and efficiency as an entire, each in instrumentation and in uniting components of French and Italian kinds. It additionally confirmed that, while Naudot was unquestionably a ‘flute composer’, he was removed from solely that. Outer actions, performed as skilfully and comprehendingly by the one-to-a-part orchestra – the only event on which we heard each violinists – as by flautist Thomas Meyer, led us down a broadly Italianate path, albeit with robust components of French ‘language’ in melody and concord. Flute and violin duets delighted as if this have been chamber music—which, at the least on this event, certainly it was. A richly expressive central Adagio revealed Naudot nonetheless extra to be possessed of a person voice, with roots in Lully but to not be decreased to anyone specific affect.
Louis Couperin and Naudot’s good friend Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, one other ‘flute composer’ although greater than that, have been each to be heard in works for solo harpsichord, performed by Wilke. The grave fantastic thing about the previous’s F-sharp minor Pavanne was introduced sympathetically to life in all its usually stunning harmonic color. The latter’s A serious Suite supplied 4 character items, ‘La Veloutée’, ‘L’Indéterminée’, ‘La Frénétique’, and ‘La Brunette’, whose vivid titles might need led the extra Romantically inclined to count on better distinction than was forthcoming. Wilke definitely attended to their particularities, but in addition evenly imparted a level of unity to them, once more straddling that line of ‘nationwide model’.
In between got here Couperin le Grand: the fourth and ultimate of his first set of Live performance royaux, its collection of dances broadly alternating the ‘French’ and the ‘Italian’, explicitly so within the third and fourth ‘Courante française’ for spirited harpsichord solo and ‘Courante à l’italienne’ (violin, harpsichord, and gamba, however no flute). The 2 ‘goûts’ can be reunited in his second set, the Nouveaux live shows, ou les goûts réunis, however right here there was a spirit of sunshine, civilised distinction, reminding us what a pleasure it was to listen to eighteenth-century French music performed in such enlightened trend on a mix of recent and ‘interval’ devices, equally properly paced and formed, with out vibrato-Verbot, but likewise with out hint of crashing anachronism. The courtly phrasing of the opening ‘Prélude’, the grace of the ‘Sarabande’, and the infections invitation to the dance of the closing ‘Forlane’, intriguing episode for gamba and harpsichord included: these and extra contributed to a collection better, but definitely not heavier, than the sum of its components.
Nicolas Bernier ‘reunited’ or, maybe higher, united the French and Italian tastes in ‘the opposite’ espresso cantata, Le Caffé by not dissimilar alternation or, as Jean-Paul C. Montagnier places it in his New Grove article on the composer, ‘equilibrium’, ‘vigorous recitatives and da capo airs … observe one another freely, whereas the expressive melody, with few broad intervals or lengthy melismas, is rooted extra within the French custom’. Right here the Gallic grace of the instrumental ‘Prélude’ betrayed only a trace of a shadow, however by and huge, the temper was (rightly) shiny and clear, as was Regina Koncz’s sensible, idiomatic, and sure, expressive singing. Her invocation of ‘Caffé’ within the second of her airs appeared, by a kind of methods of historical past which might be mere coincidence, to pre-empt Bernier’s extra celebrated Thuringian up to date. And the shameless thrill of the third air’s melismata, all of the extra startling for his or her trespass towards accustomed model, was as stylishly despatched and unfussily shaded as something on this pretty live performance. It was a becoming thought to repeat it as an encore.
Mark Berry
