Review: Bach and guts

by Ranga CHANDRANRATHNE

The eagerly awaited final concert of the year by the elite ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo was impressive. Its delightfully vibrant and homogeneous sound was large for its size, when compared with another local group. And for an orchestra that does not perform regularly, the conducterless musicians were more or less unanimous in phrasing and articulation.

The German Embassy sponsored concert opened with three gun-shot-like chords to Johann Christian Bach’s overture for his opera ‘Artersese’. They struck you right between the eyes. The overture to the opera ‘Artaserse’ was his first published work. The opera, according to the program notes, with a libretto by Pietro Trapassi called “Metastasio”, was premiered at the Turin opera house in December 1760. The story of the Persian King Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, is one of murderous ambition foiled by devoted friendship. The ‘murderous’ aspect was very present in the first movement with a striking blaze of sound with sinuous forward thrust. The middle movement was gentle and provided some genuine melodic niceties. The finale was a short rollicking affair dished out with style and effortlessness.

Performance by CMSC at Lionel Wendt Pic : Kesera Ratnavibushana

The rarely performed Sinfonia in F major by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach nicknamed the ‘Disonante,’ was quite unusual to say the least. Amongst all the disorder, you heard the initial inspirations of the great symphonic writings of Haydn and Mozart permeating all four movements. The formal but edgy sounding first movement had numerous written-in pauses that seemed to purposely interrupt the musical discourse. Here, the playing was not altogether that even, inner detail was indistinct, with the intricate rapid passages between the sections not completely synchronized. The second movement marked Andante, was pleasant, not lingering a moment longer than required.

The finale was a fugal delight, dominated with first and second violins tossing a mischievous musical figure back and forth with much humour. Here, the playing was crisp and alert.

Next on the program was J.S. Bach’s secular cantata “Non sa che sia dolore”, for Soprano (Preshanthi Navaratnam), Oboe (Yoav Weiss), and strings with cembalo. This work was fascinating. Starting off with a lengthy overture, which could have easily passed off as a first movement of a concerto for flute or oboe, was idiomatically played by the front rank musicians with dazzling solo work by the oboist. The richly voiced soprano entered on a short ‘recitative’ going almost right into the third movement marked ‘Parti pur e con dolore’. Preshanthi Navaratnam’s voice is not ideally suited for baroque roles, she being a dramatic soprano who revels in Puccini and Verdi, having said that, her professionalism and non-risk-taking saved the day. She managed to contain her large voice, and an even larger vibrato down to a sensible level. The fact that Bach gave her a mere eight string player and a cembalo playing ‘sotto voce’ as accompaniment, did no favours either. Her singing was compelling, most of the time. Yoav Weiss’s beautiful contribution of the virtuosic part was balm to our ears, and the soft-focus sound base of the principal players worked well as accompaniment.

The cantata ended with the aria ‘Ricetti gramezza e pavento’. The genius Bach in ‘sociable’ mode. Graceful, but also cerebral music that can only make you smile in wonder. And that it did. One hopes that the artistic director will program more music of this nature, he may have to be told, that the CMSC does not always have to ‘take-no-prisoners’ in their playing and programming.

The CMSC’s artistic director, Lakshman Joseph de Saram, is well known to recoil from ‘populist’ programming, relying instead with viscerally turned-out rarely performed gems from the far corners of the repertoire. His approach works, so the inclusion of the enormously popular Johann Sebastian Bach double violin concerto in d minor was a surprise. We hope that this is not the beginning of a common marketing ploy put in place by almost all classical groups, to entice the more ‘middlebrow’ of us classical music lovers. Who knows, is a ‘variety show’ next on the cards, or a Chamber Music Society sing-along, if so, may we suggest ‘Kindertotenlieder’?

Satish Casie Chetty and Shogo Kanamori, stalwarts of the first violin section took centre stage with a satisfactorily spirited performance of the solo parts. Once more, the genuine camaraderie between the musicians, a hallmark of the CMSC, was palpable. The solo playing aided by the meticulous custodian of the ensemble. The beautifully ‘romantic’ slow movement marked ‘Largo ma non tanto’ was a trifle too detached emotionally, and that would be our only quibble in an otherwise admirable performance. Bach’s matchless genius is that it radiates through diverse performing styles, and the CMSC are to be commended for keeping a tempered traditional approach alive and energized.

Closing out the program was J.C. Bach’s Sinfonia number 6 in g minor, an absolutely brilliant example of ‘Stürm und Drang’ symphonic writing. This is how you end a concert, with no one left standing and all wanting more. Tremendous energy, pulsating undercurrents and controlled power throughout the symphony had us riveted to the stage. Who would have thought the mild mannered J.C. Bach could have written such music capable of such passion and angst? And all this generated by the CMSC creating as much, if not more energy as a horde of raging hormones on close-miked drums trying to out hit each other. A tiresome staple of instant gratification on Colombo stages these days.

In a sub-culture rampant with questionable credibility, the much fawned upon Chamber Music Society of Colombo needs to perform more regularly; they have a moral obligation to take their music to the people living in all four corners of our united country. Two concerts a year in Cinnamon Gardens is just not good enough.