MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE
at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall
By the 16th century Dutch composers were setting passions to music, and from then on musical settings flourished among Catholic and Protestant composers across Europe, and became almost as standard as mass settings. There were motet passions, which were sung by a choir, and dramatic passions, in which individual parts were sung by individual singers and only the cries of the people were sung by a chorus.
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What is most impressive about Wikman’s approach–and many conductors, not only early-music conductors, could learn much from it–is his impeccable sense of balance, ensembling, and use of dynamic contrast. Wikman knows the concert spaces that he conducts in, and he has learned to utilize the acoustic advantages and disadvantages of each. Saint Paul’s allows a vast array of dynamics and Wikman takes advantage of that. The clean layering and balancing of the opening chorus was impressive indeed. Although Wikman uses modern instruments, he managed to hold back a potentially overpowering string sound and kept the players very tightly together, even in more brisk sections. What was especially impressive was that the winds, usually buried in modern-instrument performances, always cut through the strings. The biggest problem within the orchestra was the often flat viola da gamba that was incorporated into the second part of the work. Continuo sections, however, were executed with great precision, and the chorus section was remarkably well balanced, even if it had an array of vocal timbres, some of which didn’t mix in well. If text painting was sometimes overdone, or a moment sometimes a bit overly dramatic, the overall reverence and sheer musical beauty that emerged were worth having to endure such minor excesses.
The Apostles’ Creed that many of us memorized as children contains a very curious and often unexplained phrase: “He descended into Hell . . .” Though rarely commented on in sermons, this declaration was a reminder of the Christian belief that before Jesus died the souls of all the dead were banned from paradise. After the crucifixion and death of Jesus, those souls (the good ones at least) could be liberated from hell, which is what Jesus was believed to have been doing from late Good Friday until the resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is this scenario that La Resurrezione deals with, opening at the gates of hell with an angel who demands that Lucifer admit Jesus. Luckily, City Musick was extravagant and supplied the complete libretto and its translation for the audience to follow. Bravo.
Without a doubt, however, the highlight of the evening was the singing that came from the two women. Soprano Ellen Hargis, after her wonderful City Musick Messiah debut in December, sang the angel with truly celestial qualities. Although she wasn’t projecting very well in her opening arias, she warmed up and was most effective. But the find of the evening was the debut of soprano Virginia Sublett, as Mary Magdalene, whose beautiful light voice and formidable technique rang through Pick-Staiger.
