France Itinéraire Baroque en Périgord, 2024 [II] – Baroque en Cercles – Un pélèrinage Buxtehude: Ensemble Fantasticus. Église Abbatiale Saint-Cybard de Cercles. 2.8.2024. (CC)
Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) – Sonata in G, BuxWV 271; Trio Sonata in A minor, Op.1 No.33 BuxWV 254; Sonatas: C, BuxWV 266; in D, Bux 267; in F, Bux 269
Antonio Bertali (1605-1669) – Sonata for 2 violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo.
The primary live performance of the second day of the 2024 iteration of Itinéraire Baroque started with an enchanting investigation of the music of Dietrich Buxtehude through the Ensemble Fantasticus. The members of the group are its founder, Rie Kimura (Baroque violin), Robert Smith (viola da gamba), Maggie Urquart (violone) and Pieer Jan Beider (harpsichord, organ, theorbo). These are a number of the foremost interpreters of Baroque music; beforehand, Robert Smith excelled at Itinéraire Baroque; this was no exception. Rie Kimura is a significant violinist, and so they have been joined by colleagues of equally exalted stage.
Maybe greatest recognized for his organ music, Swedish-born, Lübeck-based Buxtehude was certainly one of a number of main composers for that instrument of his time (others embrace Johann Pachelbel in Nürnberg and Geog Böhm in Lüneberg). J.S. Bach’s personal pilgrimage to listen to Buxtehude in Lübeck (a great distance on foot for JSB) is the stuff of legend; our personal journey to the church in Cerles for this pilgrimage was fortunately far much less of a journey.
The Sonata in G, BuxWV 271, is certainly one of a number of that exist out of the printed collections of chamber music (the 15 Trio Sonatas, Opp. 1 and a couple of, BuxWV 252-263). It contains 5 well-contrasted actions, alternating quick and sluggish. The sense of pleasure in counterpoint within the first motion is palpable. Harpsichord is used for the jaunty first motion (there’s little dour in Buxtehude’s chamber music), after which organ for the second motion Adagio, altering again to harpsichord for textural distinction within the sooner part. Particulars mattered: cadential approaches have been fastidiously ready. All the time the gamers had their ears on the long-distance harmonic arrivals, and but element was always handled like a uncommon treasure. There was a galant facet to the third motion, as civilised as might be. Voices have been completely delineated right here (the 2 violins work together in a fashion not completely dissimilar to that of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto); whereas Kimura’s violin appeared to go full-on Stylus phantasicus for the fourth motion Adagio earlier than the Allegro recontextualises the music’s opening repeated notice. The temporary finale was energetic, all members of equal contrapuntal voice. A uncommon method to begin a lunchtime.
The Op.1 Trios have been printed within the final decade of the seventeenth century. The road-up is of violin, viola da gamba, and continuo. The viola da gamba was nonetheless ‘in’, replete with aristocratic roots; the violin was maybe extra related to extra in style types of music. The set was devoted to his employers at Lübeck. There are seven trios in Op.1, not so alike in a proper sense: The third is on this format: Adagio–Allegro–Largo–Presto (transferring to Adagio/Lento). No.3 is the one one with a completely unbiased sluggish motion as its opening. The harmonic movement is sluggish, too, giving a way of timelessness, a way palpably invoked right here by Ensemble Fantasticus. This efficiency, greater than some other I’ve heard, obeyed an inevitability of melodic line; all of it felt so nahual. The interweaving of strains within the Allegro was magical, Kimura and Smith absolute equals. It’s after all a part of stay efficiency in a rural church that avian viewers members may arrive unannounced and randomly, and so it was right here, as a fowl soared over the unflappable gamers. However it’s the astonishing opening of the third motion, with its chromatically-inflected descents, that ought to astonish, and so it did right here, the gamers intent on projecting Buxtehude’s daring. The finale is, in response, nearly unbearably jaunty. A implausible efficiency of a really nice piece of chamber music.
There are miracles of invention within the Sonata in C, BuxWV 266 (two violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo). The organ provides a way of depth, enhanced by the violone (Maggie Urquart). Rie Kimura’s Stylus pantasicus soliloquies towards organ appeared to whisper tales into our ears; how the temper modified for what is basically a gigue. It is a virtuoso composition, past doubt. If the very shut was not fairly collectively, there stays a efficiency to cherish, filled with contrasts with the power to take us to essentially the most lachrymose inside areas within the blink of a watch. The Sonata in D, BuxWV 267 is that if something extra spectacular, Robert Smith’s gamba supremely expressive, a correct Baroque opera aria hijacked by the chamber space. And the way fascinating to listen to the chromatic descents once more, as if a bleed-though from one other piece. There’s a usually low pitch to this piece and one can hear the contrapuntal interactions of gamba and violone completely below these circumstances (and we did).
The Sonata in F, BuxWV 269 is way brighter, and now again to the total scoring of two violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo. And but Buxtehude manages to insert heart-tearing moments inside this usually vivid manner: Ensemble Fantasticus’s capacity to behave as musical chameleons stood them in good stead right here.
Lastly, a bit by Verona-born, Vienna-based Antonio Bertali (1605-1669), an actual discovery. The unpeeling of counterpoint was beautiful, an actual flowering, every instrument getting its second within the solar, together with a beautiful second from second violinist Elise Dupont.
Lunchtimes must be like this day by day.
Colin Clarke
