Harpsichord News

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

Status of the Handel House Museum (London)

The establishment of a London museum to honor the life and works of George Frideric Handel has been subject to a rollercoaster series of advances and setbacks since the establishment of The Handel House Trust in 1991. Plans to purchase the early 18th-century terrace house at 25 Brook Street, Handel's home from 1723 until his death in 1759, fell through when an anticipated grant from the British Heritage Lottery Fund was withdrawn because a large matching endowment could not be raised within the required time period.

To rescue a part of the project the Co-operative Insurance Society, owners of the property, proposed that the Trust should create and run a musuem limited to the upper stories of 25 Brook Street and its neighboring house, allowing the ground floor to be used for commercial ventures. This solution would  provide space not only for the historical recreation of Handel's main room on the first floor, but also allow an area for the exhibition of the ever-expanding Trust collection, a temporary exhibition space, and an area in which to perform music.

To prepare for the museum,  construction work has begun: installation of an elevator, strengthening the main floors, and soundproofing the rooms. The owners have also offered significant future financial support.

The Handel House Trust has acquired the Byrne Handel Collection, consisting of several hundred objects. These include a letter from Handel to Messiah librettist Charles Jennens, a Thomas Hudson portrait of Jennens, an autograph leaf from the oratorio Esther, Mozart's handwritten arrangement of a Handel fugue, Mainwaring's 1760 Handel biography with annotations by Jennens, and many other books, scores, and works of art.

Modern replicas of Handel's harpsichords by William Smith and Ruckers have been delivered to the Trust by harpsichord makers Michael Cole and Bruce Kennedy.

A capital campaign to ensure the opening of this museum (projected for  the fall of 2000) has been reinstituted.  I invite our readers to join in this effort by sending contributions to The Handel House Foundation of America, Inc. c/o James B. Sitrick, Coudert Brothers, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-7703.  Gifts are tax deductible under IRS code 501(c)3.

A surprise in the news

Dominique Alice Browning, editor of House and Garden Magazine, was profiled in the Dallas Morning News (May 17, 1998). Browning's recipe for her ideal vacation caught my eye: "A combination of hiking, reading and doing a new skill like playing the HARPSICHORD . . . by the water." Her regret: "Not having become the conductor of an orchestra."

Some spring recital programs:

George Lucktenberg played the dedication concert for the Philip Tyre double harpsichord at Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, HI (March 12, 1999). His program: Passacaille in C, L. Couperin; Suite in A minor, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; La Couperin, La Régente, La Leclair, La Sylva, and La Mandoline, Forqueray; La Felix, La Cazamajor, La Forqueray, Medée, Duphly; Sonata in E, BWV 1016, for violin and harpsichord,  and "Brandenburg" Concerto 5, J. S. Bach.

Ian Pritchard, Senior Recital, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin Conservatory (April 3, 1999): Toccata, Picchi; Capriccio sopra Il Cucho, Toccata Nona [1637], Frescobaldi; Suite XIX in C minor and Tombeau Blancrocher, Froberger; On the Cut [1999], Manu Vimalassery; Ubik [1997], David Pritchard; Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, J. S. Bach.

Larry Palmer, presented by Dallas Goethe Center at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation (April 9, 1999), playing his Franco-Flemish double harpsichord by Richard Kingston. Preludes and Fugues in D, BWV 874, and B-flat, BWV 890, J. S. Bach; Seven Innocent Dances [1996], Rudy Davenport; La Couperin, F. Couperin; La Rameau, J-P Rameau; Passacaille in G minor, Georg Muffat; Menuet (Thérèse), Massenet; Dance, Delius; Gavotte from Capriccio, Richard Strauss; Concerto in D Major, BWV 972, Vivaldi-Bach.

Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity

When Nancy Metzger's harpsichord method was published in 1989 it quickly became the tutor of choice for many of us who attempt to instruct "other" keyboardists in the subtleties of the harpsichord. It is a pleasure to report that the second edition of this fine instruction book is even better than the first! At exactly the same number of pages, it has, nonetheless, a completely different, easier-to-read type, frequent revisions of the text to aid in clarifying various matters, and a much-reduced complement of pieces to play (three, as opposed to eleven in the first edition).

To compensate for the smaller number of harpsichord pieces, an added Appendix lists recommended pieces and editions.

The heart of Metzger's method remains the thirty pieces originally published in  Méthode ou Receuil de Connaissances elementaires pour le piano forte ou clavecin attributed to J. C. Bach and F. Pasquale Ricci (Paris, 1786). As the author writes, "Because these works blend absolute simplicity with thorough musicality, they are . . .  ideal vehicles for the application of the principles presented . . ."

Topics covered in Harpsichord Technique include harpsichord touch (beginning with proper hand position and super-legato), style brisé,  articulation, the differentiation of good and bad notes, and an excellent discussion of the elements of rhetorical playing, dance rhythms, and rhythmic alterations such as inequality and variable dotting. As conclusion Metzger offers a chapter concerned with musical expression: "prose and verse in baroque music: in which we beat time at the harpsichord (verse), in which we rhapsodize at the harpsichord (prose), and the stylus phantasticus."

Whether one proceeds from beginning to end of this well-organized method, or picks and chooses from the pedagogically-sound examples, Nancy Metzger's book will aid immensely in the journey toward artistic expression at the harpsichord. Published by Musica Dulce, orders may be addressed to 6827 Coachlite Way, Sacramento CA 95831.  Information is available via email from [email protected]

Features and news items, as well as suggestions for topics to be featured in these columns, are welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 or, via email, [email protected]

A Bach year roundup

Miscellaneous items received (and collected) by the
Harpsichord Editor during the Bach anniversary year 2000:

* Advertisement for the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque
Music (London, 5 June'14 July): "For 74 years Lufthansa has been
moving people around the world. Now we'd like to commemorate a fellow
German who's been doing it for slightly longer. Bach's music has
been moving people for over 250 years. . ." [found in the publication
Early Music from the Early Music Network UK].

* Harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire presented
Bach's Art of Fugue at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City on the last
day of 2000. Unusual was the simultaneous projection of a computer-generated,
digitally projected score scrolled across a large screen at the rear of the
stage, above the harpsichordist. Supertitles (!) explained the contrapuntal
devices utilized by the composer ("Theme in Tenor in Inversion,"
etc.). These addenda to Bach's plan were conceived and executed by
computer specialist James McElwaine.

* A spate of Goldbergs: in England, Gary Cooper played
Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Mar 4) at Tudeley Church, Kent, site
of twelve magnificent stained glass windows by Marc Chagall, and home to an
extensive early music concert series. At Oberlin (Ohio) Lisa Goode Crawford
presented the set in Kulas Recital Hall, Oberlin College (Feb 8). Larry Palmer
played half of them (Aria, 1-7, 14, 21-22, 25, 27-30, Aria) in Marvin Chapel,
Tyler (Texas) on Sept 21, a repeat from his 31st annual faculty recital at Southern
Methodist University, Dallas (Sept 11): music BY and ABOUT J. S. Bach,
including Schumann's Fugue III on BACH (played on the harpsichord),
Hindemith's Sonate II for Organ, March of the Night Watchman (from
Bach's Memento) of Widor, Ricercar on the Name BACH by Waldemar Bloch,
and Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547.

* In Savannah (Georgia) the exact 250th anniversary of
Bach's death (July 28) was commemorated at the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of the Ascension with this program played by Gene Jarvis: Italian
Concerto, BWV 971, Partita in B-flat, BWV 825 (harpsichord); Toccata and Fugue
in D minor, BWV 565, Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582 (organ). Dr. Irene Feddern
played three organ chorales (By the Waters of Babylon, 653; Rejoice Now,
Beloved Christians, 734; O Lamb of God, 618), and Quoniam tu solus sanctus from
the Mass in B minor was sung by baritone Christopher Roper, with Pam Titus,
horn.

* LARGELY BACH, three concerts of music by Bach, his
friends and family, played on 18th-century period-style instruments, took place
in Beloit (Wisconsin) at Beloit College (Sept 27, Oct 23, and Nov 8) featuring
the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, the Roosevelt-Fuerst Duo (violin and
harpsichord) from Freiburg, Germany, and harpsichordist Max Yount, professor of
music and music department chair at Beloit.

* Hundreds of compact discs celebrated Bach during
2000: among the finest, the continuing series of Bach cantatas in stellar
performances on period instruments, led by Masaaki Suzuki, with his Bach
Collegium Japan (available on BIS Records). Suzuki's performances are
consistently among the most satisfying to be heard on recordings, for they are
both intensely involved and historically-informed, presented without extremes
or dogmatism, yet securely based on scholarly foundations.

* Richard Troeger continued his engrossing and
rewarding traversal of Bach's keyboard works played on the clavichord
(Lyrichord) with volume 2 (the Seven Toccatas, LEMS 8041) and volume 3
(Inventions, Sinfonias, Little Preludes, LEMS 8047).

* Memphis organist and choral conductor John Ayer has
recorded The Art of the Chorale, An Organ Anthology (Pro Organo CD 7064, CD
7119), on which his superb choirs sing chorale settings (many by Bach) followed
by organ settings from various composers (Buxtehude, Hanff and Walther to
Mendelssohn, Reger, Langlais, Manz, Near, and William Lloyd Webber). Bach organ
works included are Komm, heiliger Geist (BWV 651), Aus tiefer Not' (686),
Vom Himmel hoch (606), Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (659), and Vor deinen Thron
(668).

* If transcriptions are your delight, Shawn Leopard
and John Paul have recorded the complete Bach Keyboard Trio Sonatas played on
two Lautenwerke (gut-strung harpsichords) built by Anden Houben (Lyrichord LEMS
8045).

* From his archives, Baltimore harpsichordist Joseph
Stephens has issued two compact discs of recital performances: Live from the
Cathedral Joseph Stephens, harpsichordist, Plays Bach (AMR 19971003) and Music
for Two Harpsichords (Stephens with Lloyd Bowers), available from Dr. Stephens
[email: [email protected]].

* Do not neglect to read Christoph Wolff's
up-to-the-year, state-of-the-art view of the composer in THE 250th anniversary
biography Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician (Norton; ISBN
0-393-04825-X).

News items and features are welcome for these columns.
Please address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, TX 75275. Email:
HYPERLINK<mailto:[email protected]&gt; <[email protected]>.

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON.

“Feast of the Gods,” the 282-page program book of the Boston Early Music Festival listed a bountiful smorgasbord of musical offerings from which each visitor to this biennial early music extravaganza could construct an individual menu. Stellar offerings at prime afternoon, evening, and late evening times carried the cachet (and financing) of the Festival proper; ancillary events, sponsored (but not paid for) by the BEMF organization, included a plethora of “fringe” concerts (I counted a total of 79 this year) as well as the displays comprising the exhibition, where much of the business of early music is conducted.
Inexpensive housing was available once again at the spartan, but convenient, “Little Building,” an Emerson College dormitory, ideally located on Boylston Street at Tremont, across from the Boston Common. The Cutler Majestic Theatre, home to BEMF opera productions, is just around the corner; the Radisson Hotel, site of the exhibition, only several blocks away. A congenial group of players and visitors met and conversed each morning at the bountiful breakfasts, included with the modest room charge.
“Fringe” concerts are often good indicators of the quality of early music performance around the country: a few of the groups selected from venues far distant from Boston were the Chicago-based Trio Settecento, with harpsichordist David Schrader; Colorado soloists from the Chamber Orchestra based in Denver, with harpsichordist Frank Nowell; and two groups from Texas: the University of North Texas Baroque Orchestra and Singers (Lyle Nordstrom, director), who presented two programs, and Fort Worth-based Texas Camerata, with rising (Lone-) star soprano Ava Pine, drew another capacity audience to its program at Emmanuel Church’s intimate, but resonant, neo-Gothic Lindsey Chapel, the site of many festival events.
After the Camerata performance on Wednesday afternoon I was eager to sample some music produced by others, starting with my first-ever attendance at a BEMF late-night program, German keyboardist Alexander Weimann’s “Apollonian” themed concert at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. A technically difficult banality by the singularly named composer, “Tubel [London, 1789],” featured fast cross-hand passages at the harpsichord. Pachelbel’s Aria Sebaldina (Nürnberg, 1699), on a chamber organ, was played so percussively that the chiffy Gedeckt stop sounded more glockenspiel than flute. Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, in Weimann’s transcription for fortepiano, was an amazing tour de force of notes, but left one thankful for the composer’s orchestration. While lyric passages worked beautifully on Paul McNulty’s splendid Anton Walter-styled fortepiano, fast and full episodes were amazing, but unsatisfying.
A short Thursday morning walk to the north end of the Common, past Freedom Trail Revolutionary-period costumed guides and their clients, led to the Paulist Center where clavichordist Judith Conrad played an hour of Music for the Holy Grail by Juan Bautista Cabanilles on a triple-fretted clavichord by Andreas Hermert (Berlin, 2003) after an instrument by Georg Woytzig (1689). The concert, a benefit for the Iraq Family Relief Fund, gave one the opportunity to acquire a “Clavichordists for World Peace” tee shirt. Who could resist? Ms. Conrad’s informal presentation of the Spanish master’s learned counterpoint, intermingled with kinetic dances appropriate to the Valencian ecclesiastical rubric for Corpus Christi celebrations (“twelve dances on the altar” required) delighted her capacity audience of 30 in the intimate third-floor library.
An overflow audience greeted Long Island’s Stony Brook Baroque Players in the Radisson exhibition room of The Harpsichord Clearing House. Arthur Haas’s student ensemble was this year’s winner of Early Music America’s grant for bringing a student early music ensemble to BEMF. In a program based on the Follia, 19 players showed their prowess in a variety of pieces by Uccellini, Marco da Gagliano, Dario Castello, Falconieri, Merula, and Locatelli. Mezzo-soprano Christine Free captured the text-driven moods and poignant heartbreak of Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna. Nine players sizzled in Vivaldi’s Follia Variations (Sonata XII, RV 63), with fine continuo support from harpsichordist Tami Morse and baroque guitarist Jim Smith.
The superb BEMF Orchestra, out of the pit and on stage, played Thursday’s 8 o’clock sell-out concert in Jordan Hall. Presenting orchestral music from the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau and a complete performance of The Judgment of Paris, a pastoral by John Eccles, the best baroque band in the land displayed its musical precision and exquisitely fine tuning. Under the leadership of festival co-directors Steven Stubbs and Paul O’Dette (playing baroque guitars and theorbos) and concert master Robert Mealey, the group didn’t miss a musical nuance. The ecstatic audience insisted on an encore, a reprise of the Tambourins from Rameau’s Dardanus.
The same orchestra starred in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s 1678 opera Psyché, receiving its North American premiere performances. Strong keyboard continuo realizations by Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord) and Peter Sykes (harpsichord and organ), with the plucked strings of O’Dette and Stubbs, stellar strings and woodwinds, and most inventive percussion playing, including the “human” wind machine (a whistle) manipulated by Marie-Ange Petit anchored a spectacular production. Memorable stage moments, many accomplished by “deus ex machina” arrivals and departures, proved remarkably modern in concept (the solo singers wore seat belts as they were flown from or to the fly space above the stage). The sudden appearance of an adult L’Amour (replacing the young Cupid), through a double mirror, elicited a collective gasp, as did the evocative red lighting of the scenic underworld.
So many motives in Thomas Corneille’s opera libretto seemed to foreshadow works to come: the forbidden questioning of a lover’s name and a swan boat exit (Lohengrin); constructing a suitable palace for the gods (Rheingold); a vengeful queen raging in coloratura (The Magic Flute); or a required trip to Hades to rescue the beloved (Orfeo): even though hearing this work for the first time, one felt quite at home in operatic territory. A unit set served the action well: high hedge-ringed garden, fronted by a wrought-iron fence and ornate gates. The eight folding panels were opened and shut as needed by four footmen. Baroque gesture, appropriate choreography, vibrant costumes: I heard more than one listener remark that the “Festival had got this one absolutely right.”
Karina Gauvin stormed her way through the vocal histrionics of the jealous Venus. Carolyn Sampson was a sweet and vocally secure Psyché. Boy soprano Frederick Metzger negotiated the part of young Cupid with aplomb. Three black-clad Furies (Zachary Wilder, Jason McStoots, and Olivier Laquerre), in black wide-bustled gowns à la Mary Todd Lincoln, were appropriately demonic.
Earlier on Friday the organ took center stage in an all-day mini-festival, The Organ as a Mirror of Cultural Change. The morning sessions, at historic Old West Church, celebrated the 1971 C. B. Fisk organ (with its handsome Appleton case), in music of France at the time of Lully, with compositions by d’Anglebert, de Grigny, Chaumont, Dandrieu, Corrette, and both Louis and François Couperin. Two Lully overtures (transcribed from the operas Bellerophon and Cadmus) celebrated BEMF’s poster composer. The stylish players were Jan Willem Jansen and William Porter.
The afternoon sessions, Signor Buxtehudo and Monsieur Böhm, were held at First Lutheran Church, where the 2000 Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ, in a slightly more resonant space, served well in compositions by Dieterich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm, intersected by Kerala J. Snyder’s illuminating talk “What’s New in Buxtehude Scholarship?” Dr. Snyder relayed the good news that the post-1685 account books of St. Mary’s Church (Lübeck), previously missing, are now returned to Buxtehude’s city (after war wanderings), thus allowing more detailed study of expenses for such things as organ tuning and possible changes of keyboard temperament. Several new fragments of Buxtehude works, and even rediscovered compositions, have come to light, and she has had second thoughts on the possible identification of Buxtehude in the 1674 Hamburg painting by Johannes Voorhout, frontispiece to her important study Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck (New York: Schirmer Books, 1987)—all reasons enough to offer a revised, expanded edition (2007), now available from University of Rochester Press <www.urpress.com&gt;.
The organ mini-festival programs were dedicated, fittingly enough, to the memory of Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006), Boston musician extraordinaire, who was memorialized in a program book tribute by BEMF board member, organist Lee Ridgway. Tribute was paid also to harpsichordist and author Howard Schott (1923–2005) in graceful words from Paul Cienniwa.
On the instrument front there was much excitement generated by a new double-manual harpsichord built by Zuckermann Harpsichords International, based on the 1642 Hans Moermans, formerly in the collection of the late Rodger Mirrey (London), now in the Russell Collection (Edinburgh). The design, to drawings by R. P. Hale with Peter Watchorn’s input and musical finishing, provides a replica of an instrument that may be the earliest expressive double harpsichord to survive. (For more complete information, see
<http://zhi.net/instr/moermans.shtml&gt;.)
The Harpsichord Clearing House (Glenn Guittari and Howard Wagner) showed a variety of instruments in their spacious quarters at the Radisson (the Dartmouth Room), where daily concerts also took place. Eagerly anticipated (at least by some of us) is the outcome of the bidding for HCH’s desirable antique offering, a 1907 Dolmetsch-Chickering clavichord, held for sale at this year’s festival. Bids were to begin at $25,000.
On a warming, sunny Saturday morning a leisurely stroll to the Goethe Center put me there too late to hear the program: Handel’s Opera—His immortal songs without words, and some other pieces by his musicians—comprising 18th-century arrangements of popular Handel overtures and arias for recorders and harpsichord. It was a cleverly-contrived playlist, and the performers, “Musical Playground,” Martina Bley (recorders) and Jörg Jacobi (harpsichord), otherwise were to be seen at the Exhibition as purveyors of their early music publications from “edition baroque” (Bremen).
Too soon it was time to head for Logan Airport, where takeoff was delayed until there was some hope of landing in stormy Dallas. Waiting, however, gave time to reflect on Boston’s unique contributions to the world of early music, and to realize again that it is the place to be during festival week in June of odd-numbered years.

Larry Palmer

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

Some spring recital programs

George Lucktenberg played the dedication concert for the Philip Tyre double harpsichord at Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, HI (March 12, 1999). His program: Passacaille in C, L. Couperin; Suite in A minor, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; La Couperin, La Régente, La Leclair, La Sylva, and La Mandoline, Forqueray; La Felix, La Cazamajor, La Forqueray, Medée, Duphly; Sonata in E, BWV 1016, for violin and harpsichord, and "Brandenburg" Concerto 5, J. S. Bach.

Ian Pritchard, Senior Recital, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin Conservatory (April 3, 1999): Toccata, Picchi; Capriccio sopra Il Cucho, Toccata Nona [1637], Frescobaldi; Suite XIX in C minor and Tombeau Blancrocher, Froberger; On the Cut [1999], Manu Vimalassery; Ubik [1997], David Pritchard; Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, J. S. Bach.

Larry Palmer, presented by Dallas Goethe Center at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation (April 9, 1999), playing his Franco-Flemish double harpsichord by Richard Kingston. Preludes and Fugues in D, BWV 874, and B-flat, BWV 890, J. S. Bach; Seven Innocent Dances [1996], Rudy Davenport; La Couperin, F. Couperin; La Rameau, J-P Rameau; Passacaille in G minor, Georg Muffat; Menuet (Thérèse), Massenet; Dance, Delius; Gavotte from Capriccio, Richard Strauss; Concerto in D Major, BWV 972, Vivaldi-Bach.

Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity

When Nancy Metzger's harpsichord method was published in 1989 it quickly became the tutor of choice for many of us who attempt to instruct "other" keyboardists in the subtleties of the harpsichord. It is a pleasure to report that the second edition of this fine instruction book is even better than the first! At exactly the same number of pages, it has, nonetheless, a completely  different, easier-to-read type, frequent revisions of the text to aid in clarifying various matters, and a much-reduced complement of pieces to play (three, as opposed to eleven in the first edition).

To compensate for the smaller number of harpsichord pieces, an added Appendix lists recommended pieces and editions.

The heart of Metzger's method remains the thirty pieces originally published in  Méthode ou Receuil de Connaissances elementaires pour le piano forte ou clavecin attributed to J. C. Bach and F. Pasquale Ricci (Paris, 1786). As the author writes, "Because these works blend absolute simplicity with thorough musicality, they are . . .  ideal vehicles for the application of the principles presented . . ."

Topics covered in Harpsichord Technique include harpsichord touch (beginning with proper hand position and super-legato), style brisé,  articulation, the differentiation of good and bad notes, and an excellent discussion of the elements of rhetorical playing, dance rhythms, and rhythmic alterations such as inequality and variable dotting. As conclusion Metzger offers a chapter concerned with musical expression: "prose and verse in baroque music: in which we beat time at the harpsichord (verse), in which we rhapsodize at the harpsichord (prose), and the stylus phantasticus."

Whether one proceeds from beginning to end of this well-organized method, or picks and chooses from the pedagogically-sound examples, Nancy Metzger's book will aid immensely in the journey toward artistic expression at the harpsichord. Published by Musica Dulce, orders may be addressed to 6827 Coachlite Way, Sacramento CA 95831.  Information is available via email from [email protected]

Features and news items, as well as suggestions for topics to be featured in these columns, are welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 or, via email, [email protected]

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON.

Anticipation was high as the hour drew near for the first staged performance
of Johann Mattheson's Boris Goudenow.
Composed in 1710 for the Hamburg Opera, but never performed (probably for
political reasons), the opera slept the long sleep of libraries, narrowly
surviving destruction in the World War II bombing of northern Germany. Moved
secretly for safekeeping, the score remained in Armenia, was returned to
Hamburg in 1998, and now, on June 14, 2005, after almost 300 years, this ink on
paper was about to become living sound for an audience.

Just as I joined the capacity crowd entering the Cutler Majestic Theatre, a
celebratory fanfare sounded forth. I was one of the lucky ones who made it to
my mezzanine spot in the 1200-seat Beaux Arts hall before the overture began.
Those who were not so fortunate created a fair amount of chaos during the
opening scene of the opera, possibly adding some 18th-century-style realism to
the occasion!

Brilliant ceremonial rites at the Russian court, colorful dancing
(especially a divertissement of the disabled that closed the second act, and
the final chaconne), some striking stage pictures (sunrise over the Kremlin at
the beginning of Act III was particularly effective), and the luminously
stylistic, homogeneous playing of the BEMF Orchestra made this a memorable
evening at the opera. Mattheson's music was nothing out of the ordinary, and
gripping, engaging singing, especially from the women, was in short supply. A
bawdy, comic role--the servant Bogda (sung by William Hite)--stood out, as did
some touches such as the percussive clatter of thrown coins (in the Coronation
scene: a foretaste of Britten's slung mugs from Noyes Fludde
style='font-style:normal'>?), and the festive addition of handbells and
castanets for the final tableau.

One strange facet of Mattheson's work is its macaronic text: Italian arias
inserted freely into a primarily German libretto. An added oddity of this particular
performance in 18th-century style was the decision to keep the house lights
dark, although, with a (21st-century) projected text, it might be considered
unnecessary for the audience to refer to the printed texts that had been
provided. 

Festival Concerts

Just how important a mesmerizing singer can be to an opera was borne home
the following evening at Jordan Hall when the Festival offered Nights at the
Opera: Highlights from Beloved BEMF Productions. Opening with a superb reading
of orchestral excerpts from Lully's Thésée
style='font-style:normal'> (staged in 2001), continuing with ravishing and
riveting arias from Conradi's Ariadne (2003), delivered with dramatic intensity by Canadian soprano Karina
Gauvin, this was voluptuous music presented with authoritative diction and gorgeous
sound, to boot.

It was especially enlightening to have the orchestra front and center, on
stage rather than in the pit, allowing one to observe the close interaction
among the players, and the ways in which they were led by Festival musical
co-directors, lutenists Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, and concertmaster
Robert Mealy. These leaders, along with the two continuo
harpsichordists--Kristian Bezuidenhout and Jörg Jacobi (who had produced
the printed score and parts used for the Boris premiere)--kept the music moving
with gut-wrenching inflections, infectious dance-based rhythmic nuance, and
some of the most satisfying cadential resolutions to be enjoyed on the planet.
For those not in attendance, these musical splendors may be heard at home in BEMF's
first commercial recording. Their performance of Conradi's Ariadne
style='font-style:normal'> has just been released as a three compact disc set
on the German CPO label (777 073-2).

Excerpts from Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo,
a back-to-back demonstration of Handel's wholesale borrowing from Mattheson
(nearly-identical arias from the latter's Porsenna
style='font-style:normal'>, 1702, as used by the former in his Agrippina
style='font-style:normal'>, 1709), and Mattheson's undistinguished, lengthy
serenata concerning the virtues of chastity, Die Keusche Liebe
style='font-style:normal'>, failed to achieve the musical excitement generated
in the first half of the program.

Sequentia, ensemble for medieval music, presented the 8 o'clock Jordan Hall
concert on Thursday evening. This was not the ticket I had requested (thinking
that I should at least try to hear one of the 11 o'clock late-night concerts),
but I decided to accept providence and attend Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper,
a program that proved to be a stunner! Framing two large parts of the program
with songs to texts by the learned medieval musician Boethius, the four-member
ensemble was heard in a variety of voicings, from unaccompanied monophony to
settings with harp, lyre and several flutes, including one made from a delicate
swan's bone. With translations projected on a large central screen hung from
the organ case, it was not difficult to follow the lengthy Latin texts.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

After intermission the dramatic impact was ratcheted up several notches,
especially in the  gripping
Icelandic saga, Atlakvida (Lay of Attila
the Hun), the earliest known retelling of the Rhinegold story later the basis
for Richard Wagner's four-opera Ring of the Nibelungs
style='font-style:normal'>. In considerably less time, Sequentia founder
Benjamin Bagby related the violent tale, becoming the embodiment of an
Icelandic harper, concentrated and severe in expression, and with such incisive
diction that the old Scandinavian text was chillingly clear. We listeners
experienced grim history as our ancestors might have done. Bagby's performance
was a startling, unforgettable theatrical tour-de-force.

Drama of another sort--that of program changes--informed the Friday evening
program Five Concerti and a Magnificat. An Overture (to the opera Porsenna
style='font-style:normal'>) and the double chorus Magnificat
style='font-style:normal'> were by Mattheson. The Overture, featuring BEMF's
principal oboist Washington McClain, was followed by the first program
substitution: the Bach Concerto in D minor for Two Violins
style='font-style:normal'> (with soloists Andrey Reshetin and Maria
Krestinskaya) replacing the scheduled Vivaldi Concerto to have been played by
Giuliano Carmignola, indisposed in Italy. Matthias Maute romped through two
Recorder Concerti (in F Major by Telemann and the G Major, RV 443, by Vivaldi)
with musical insight and astonishing virtuosity. Like soprano Gauvin, he was
unafraid to make the occasional ugly sound for dramatic effect. Replacing
Carmignola's second star turn was Johann Wilhelm Hertel's Cello
Concerto in A minor, featuring BEMF's
superb principal cellist, Phoebe Carrai, a satisfying and expressively kinetic
player.

Announcing the program changes, Paul O'Dette quipped that it was probably
the first time, at least in North America, that a program would feature two
Hertel Concerti. A native of J. S. Bach's hometown, Eisenach, the unfamiliar
Hertel (1727-1789), proved his worth in the works heard on this program, with
the Concerto in F minor for Fortepiano and Strings
style='font-style:normal'> a stronger composition. It was lovingly played by
Kristian Bezuidenhout, who achieved hushed, nearly inaudible pianissimi in the
poignant Largo, and also improvised an extended cadenza at the end of this
movement.

A Plethora of Offerings: Fringe and Beyond

The large number of concerts during Festival Week forced would-be listeners
to make difficult choices. For example, two further sets of daily concerts at 5
and 11 included duos for bass violas da gamba; choral music for the Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian I and his daughter Marguerite of Austria; violin and
harpsichord music for the 18th-century Russian manor house; Gypsy Primadonna
music of 1820s Moscow; "Waild and Krejzy: secular music in 1730s
Slovakia"; and baroque lute music played by the indomitable duo of Stubbs
and O'Dette, who seemed to be everywhere--opera orchestra (Boris was played
four times during the week) as well as all other appearances of the BEMF
Orchestra, master classes, solo recitals, administrative matters--an amazing
musical (and physical) expenditure of energy. Every involvement I noted was at
a very high level, as well.

There were at least 57 scheduled "fringe" concerts in various
nearby venues, plus the concurrent Early Music Exhibition (Wednesday through
Saturday) at the Radisson Hotel, where dozens of demonstration recitals were
sponsored by instrument makers and dealers. As harpsichordist for the Texas
Camerata concert on Thursday (Lindsay Chapel of Emmanuel Church), I experienced
a sold-out house of involved and appreciative auditors. It was not possible to
attend many of these added events (all by groups that had been screened before
receiving an invitation from the Festival management), but I heard enthusiastic
reports about many programs. Of the Exhibition concerts I heard two: the first
a morning program with Team Mattheson (Matilda Butkas and William Carragan),
duo harpsichordists, performing works by the featured composer of the week.
They played fine harpsichords by David Werbeloff [Boston] after Zell and Robert
Hicks [Vermont] after Stehlin for an overflowing complement of listeners, many
seated on the floor or leaning against any available wall space.

In the afternoon Duo d'amore (Geoffrey Burgess, baroque oboes; Elaine
Funaro, harpsichord) again played to a capacity audience in the ample
exhibition space occupied by The Harpsichord Clearing House. Perhaps, like me,
these auditors were eager to escape "the din of antiquity" (to borrow
Daniel Pinkham's apt phrase) and to experience old instruments in some new
music. Both players made cogent cases for their commissioned repertory; the
program included two world premieres (works by Chris Lastovicka and Edwin
McLean, whose contribution Incantations gave opportunity to hear the darker,
smoky timbre of the baroque oboe d'amore)! Funaro programmed two short
harpsichord solos by Tom Robin Harris and Stephen Yates. Additional duets were
by John Mayrose, and Andrew Ford, plus Yates's hauntingly beautiful Canto
style='font-style:normal'> (2004), a lyric fantasia well suited to both wind
and keyboard. For contrast one piece of earlier music could have benefited this
program, although all of the new works were of interest. The only other
insertion of "later music" into the Festival program was a Zuckermann
Harpsichords-sponsored program by California harpsichordist/composer Shelli
Nan.

Events with a particular educational focus included a morning clavichord
symposium at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; "Performing Baroque Music
According to Mattheson" at the Goethe Institute; "Rediscovering Boris
Goudenow: Performance and Production Issues
in German Baroque Opera"; a wide variety of instrumental and vocal
masterclasses; and organizational discussions on audience building and other
practicalities sponsored by Early Music America and a panel of early music
concert promoters. 

Friday's day-long celebration of the North German organ featured a recent,
refined Richards and Fowkes organ (opus 10, 2000) at First Lutheran Church,
with organists Edoardo Bellotti, Hans Davidsson, and William Porter playing
literature that demonstrated the organist-composer as contrapuntist, as
preacher, and as orator. In the first of the afternoon sessions, Porter used
the rich plenum and full, singing principals of this modest-sized two-manual
instrument in Buxtehude's monumental Praeludium in E minor
style='font-style:normal'> (BuxWV 142), followed by Krebs's Fantasia
on Herr Jesus Christ, dich zu uns wend
(idiomatic reed solo) and trio on Herzlich Lieb hab' ich dich, o Herr
style='font-style:normal'> (piquant, lively flutes). C. P. E. Bach's Fantasia
con Fuga in C minor served up the gravitas
of a satisfying 16-foot plenum, complete with Sesquialtera.

This provided the perfect musical segue to my other choice of fringe
program, heard in a religious edifice just across the street. First and Second
Church, destroyed by fire in 1968, was replaced, behind its damaged
façade, with a striking, contemporary building, including a second-story
high-ceilinged, freely-angled chapel. In this sky-lit quiet space Iowa's Carol
lei Breckenridge played all six of C. P. E. Bach's Sonaten für Kenner
und Liebhaber [Sonatas for Connoisseurs and
Amateurs] (Volume I, 1779) in a musical salon concert, with period poetry read
in German by Michael Herrick. 

Breckenridge, heard several years ago in memorable Mozart performances,
maintained her reputation as a master of the clavichord. Playing a large
unfretted instrument by Paul Irvin [Chicago], she limned the rapidly shifting
emotions of these Sturm und Drang compositions with unflappable technical ease.
The six sonatas, each comprising three movements, are not of equal length, nor,
frankly, of equal interest. Among all 18 movements, the very first (a dazzling
Prestissimo) was breathtaking, as was the complete (and shorter) Fifth Sonata
(F Major). Sonata Three, the only one in a minor key, required a brief retuning
(B-flat becoming A-sharp)--as did the amazing chromatics introducing the middle
movement of the final sonata.

Mid-afternoon on Friday was not a fortuitous time to attract a crowd: about
20 listeners shared this perfect pendant to the organ symposia.

At the Exhibition: An Abundance of Fine
Keyboard Instruments

At least 22 makers and distributors of keyboard instruments were listed in
the 276-page Festival program book (itself a work of art). Fine harpsichords
were much in evidence. In addition to those by builders already mentioned, some
that attracted  attention
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  were made by Adam Decker (the
Harpsichord Gallery, Atlanta); Marc Ducornet (the Paris Workshop); and by
consistently satisfying makers Richard Kingston (North Carolina)--whose Flemish
single harpsichord with colorful abstract lid painting by June Zinn Hobby was a
visual and sonic feast, Allan Winkler (Boston), and Douglas Maple
(Pennsylvania). (Harpsichords by Kingston, David Sutherland [Ann Arbor],
Winkler and Dowd were used in the opera performances and for the BEMF
orchestral programs.)

Gut-strung Lautenwerks from Steven Sorli (Amherst, MA) were beautifully
crafted, exciting instruments, as was a portable high-pitched clavichord by
Gary Blaise (San Francisco). I could not resist the 1939 John Challis
clavichord displayed by Glenn Giutarri and The Harpsichord Clearing House among
their many fine instruments, including 
chamber organs. Another triple-transposing continuo organ from Les
Ateliers Guilbault Bellavance Carignan (Quebec) had a pleasingly gentle wooden
4-foot Principal among its four stops.

Also tempting were displays on tables laden with musical facsimiles and
other scores, eye-catching recordings (among the most enticing were the 18
unorthodox and brilliant covers for the Vivaldi Edition CDs issued thus far by
the Italian label Naïve) and opulent publications such as Goldberg Early
Music Magazine, now publishing collectible single-composer issues. It was
necessary to keep checkbook and credit cards firmly under control, although
failing to do so also had its rewards (until the bills arrived).

Boston: Convenient and Memorable

Nearly all the concert venues were within walking distance or accessible by
inexpensive public transport. Food of all varieties and prices was available,
ranging from pre-packaged sandwiches to elegant restaurant menus (Legal
Seafoods was just across from the exhibition space).

And central Boston itself held so many musical associations and personal
memories. For instance it was not possible to be in Jordan Hall without
remembering Ralph Kirkpatrick's 50th anniversary harpsichord recital (in 1981,
during the very first Early Music Festival); or to walk into King's Chapel
without recalling composer Daniel Pinkham, who graced the organist/ choirmaster
position there for so many years. Lovely, now historic, harpsichords built by
William Dowd were in evidence and in use. A photograph of early music pioneer
Arnold Dolmetsch, once employed to direct the making of early instruments at
the Chickering Piano Factory across the river in Cambridge, graced the front
cover of a Boston Clavichord Society brochure.

Inexpensive dormitory housing, available in a building now owned by Emerson
College, was only steps away from Steinert Hall, endowed by one of America's
first early instrument collectors, piano dealer Morris Steinert. Directly
across the street, in the old burying ground on Boston Common, the remains of
composer William Billings are thought to be buried, and he is commemorated by a
plaque placed there during the 1976 American Guild of Organists national
convention (a conference memorable for E. Power Biggs's late-career performance
of Rheinberger Organ Concertos with the Boston Pops, despite EPB's
stress-fractured arm!).

Wagnerian swanboats long have been a feature on the pond of the Public
Garden (founded in 1839). Recent, however, is the reverent, nostalgic addition
to this venerable and well-utilized park: a Garden of Remembrance for the
victims of the 9/11 attack. Many people pause at the simple stone memorial to
meditate, and to read these touching words from Boston and Sea Poems by
Lawrence Homer, poet-laureate of Faneuil Hall:

Time touches all more gently here,

Here where man has said, No:

Trees and grass, and flowers will remain:

. . . watching swanboats glide in season.

It was a pleasure to attend this Boston Early Music Festival and Exhibition,
after a 20-year-long interval of not being there, and to observe the breadth
and vitality of the current early music scene. If Johann Mattheson's music did
not prove him to have been a composer of extraordinary genius, the event was,
nevertheless, a welcome opportunity to learn more about this 18th-century
musician and writer, to assess more knowledgeably his place among his
well-known contemporaries, and to experience yet another from the
ever-lengthening list of forgotten or unknown operas, transformed from dusty
scores to living stage productions through the inspired efforts of America's
premier early music festival. More, please.

Further Information

Stephen Stubbs: "Johann Mattheson--the Russian connection: the
rediscovery of Boris Goudenow and his other lost operas," Early Music
style='font-style:normal'> XXXIII/2 (May 2005), 283-292.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

Previous BEMF reports by Larry Palmer

The Diapason, August 1981, 1, 3 [the
first Early Music Festival].

The Diapason, April 1985, 9 [the 1983
Festival].

The Diapason, October 1985, 10-11
[the 1985 Festival].

Karen McFarlane has announced her retirement from twenty-four years of active concert management, effective January 1 of this coming year. Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc., which in 2001 will mark its 80th anniversary, was originally founded by Bernard R. LaBerge. In 1962, his long-time secretary, Lilian Murtagh, took over the agency, which was transferred to Ms. McFarlane shortly before Mrs. Murtagh's death in 1976.

Under Karen McFarlane's tenure, the management has continued to represent many of the world's finest concert organists, and in addition has ventured into two new areas. In 1982, Ms. McFarlane became the first concert manager for organists to officially promote the winner of a major national competition, and since that time has volunteered her assistance to 10 NYACOP winners, working with each for a two-year period. She agreed in 1990 to represent the gold medal winners of the Calgary International Organ Festival, and, although she has been invited to represent winners of other major international organ competitions, she has chosen to work with competitions which are based in North America. In 1985 her management began to import select collegiate and cathedral choirs of men and boys from England to North America, starting a trend of tours by English choirs that has continued. During the past fifteen years she has toured the choirs of St. Thomas Church, New York City; Canterbury Cathedral; Salisbury Cathedral; Winchester Cathedral; King's College and St. John's College, Cambridge; Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, London; and The Cambridge Singers (John Rutter, director).

Karen McFarlane holds a bachelor's degree from Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri, where she studied organ with Franklin Perkins. She also attended Washington University and Union Theological Seminary, and studied with Claire Coci. In 1966 she moved to New York City to assist Frederick Swann at The Riverside Church. She has also served as Director of Music/Organist at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Marcos, Texas, and as Director of Music/Organist at Park Avenue Christian Church, New York City. She took over the Lilian Murtagh Concert Management in 1976, has served as Associate Choirmaster at The Church of the Covenant, Cleveland, since 1988, and has been married to Walter Holtkamp, Jr. since 1982. Karen McFarlane is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Entertainment, the International Who's Who in Music, and The World Who's Who of Women. She received the Avis H. Blewett Award from the St. Louis AGO, and was one of two recipients of the national AGO's first Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award in 2000.

The new president of Karen McFarlane Artists will be John McElliott, who is currently Booking Director for the management. Mr. McElliott grew up in Akron, Ohio, where he was introduced to church music as a boy chorister in the Men and Boys Choir at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, under the direction of Robert Quade. He then went on to study organ and voice at The University of Akron, and later was a choral scholar with the Choir of Winchester Cathedral in England. He has had a great deal of performance experience as a singer with early music groups such as Apollo's Fire, and has a solid knowledge of organ repertoire as well. He is married to organist Yuri Sato.

On September 8 of this year, in recognition of her forthcoming retirement, Karen McFarlane was honored by her entire roster of artists at a musical event held at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. The event, which was secretly planned for more than a year, was a program of "Musical Gifts," in which each artist on the roster either composed or commissioned a piece for organ, solo voice, or choir. A total of 30 new works were composed, of which 26 were performed that evening.

Organ:

George Baker: Chorale-prelude, If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee

Guy Bovet: Tango de setimo tono (a modo de Habanera)

Petr Eben: Preludium I (commissioned by Susan Landale)

Ann Gebur: Meditation on "Schmücke dich" (commissioned by Clyde Holloway)

William Harvey: Vocalissimus (commissioned by Christopher Young)

Martin Haselböck: Birthday Card with Signature

Marilyn Keiser: Variations on "Good Christian Friends, Rejoice"

Olivier Latry: Arabesque on the Name of Karen McFarlane

William McVicker: Six Variations über una tema de Vincent Youmans (commissioned by David Goode, James O'Donnell, Jane Parker-Smith, Simon Preston, Ann Elise Smoot and Gillian Weir)

Craig Phillips: Tribute—A Lullaby for Organ (commissioned by David Craighead)

Daniel Pinkham: The Salutation of Gabriel (French horn/organ)(commissioned by Joan Lippincott)

Myron Roberts: Fantasy for Organ (shared dedication with Robert Baker)

Daniel Roth: from Livre d'orgue pour le Magnificat

Robert Sirota: Fanfare for Many Members (commissioned by Donald and Phyllis Sutherland)

Frederick Swann: Meditation on "Repton"

Thomas Trotter, arr. from Vivaldi: Alla Rustica

Hymns:

Gerre Hancock: A Hymn for Karen (hymn-tune: Karen)

Todd Wilson: He Comes to Us as One Unknown (hymn-tune: Cedar Hill)

Solo Voice:

Diane Meredith Belcher: Lutebook Lullaby

Stephen Kennedy: St. Theresa's Bookmark (commissioned by David Higgs)

Thomas Murray: Earth with Her Ten-Thousand Flowers

Anne Wilson: May There Always

Choir:

Marie-Claire Alain: Two Early French Noëls for Choir

Stephen Cleobury: Founder's Prayer

David Hill: Sing Lullaby                                                   

Alan Morrison: The Lord Bless You and Keep You

Peter Planyavsky: Choral arrangement of Lasst uns erfreuen

Stephen Tharp: O Sacred Feast

In addition, a humorous group sing-along piece entitled "A Ditty for Karen," by Peter Hurford, was performed. John Weaver, who has over the years become the management's "Poet Laureate," read a Special Recitation. Performances of the above new works were by many of the roster organists, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; John McElliott and David Hoffman, baritone; Larry Williams, French horn; and a choir composed of Peabody voice students. The welcome was given by Robert Sirota, Director of the Peabody Conservatory. A benediction by Victoria Sirota closed the evening. It was the largest number of new works premiered at any event in memory, many of which are being published.

As of January 1, Karen McFarlane Artists will have a new address: 2385 Fenwood Road, Cleveland OH 44118. Toll-free telephone: 866/721-9095; Fax: 216/397-7716; E-mail: [email protected]. The web-site for the management is www.concertorganists.com. Karen McFarlane ([email protected]) will continue, on a part-time basis, to expand performance opportunities for the management's competition winners and young organists, as well as handle the planning for the yearly choir tours. David Hoffman, who has been with the management for many years, will continue as Office Manager.