21:50 From Pamela Hickman's Concert Critique Blog: "In Mixto Genere performs CON AMORE at Eden-Tamir Music Centre". March 2013 |
Saturday, April 6, 2013In Mixto Genere performs "Con amore" at the Eden-Tamir Music Center
"Con amore” – music of the 17th and 18th
centuries on the subject of love - was one of the events of the
Eden-Tamir Center’s 2013 Passover Festival in the idyllic village of Ein
Kerem, Jerusalem on March 30th. The
concert was performed by members of the In Mixto Genere Ensemble – Anna
Ioffe-Baroque violin and viola d’amore, Alina Keitlin-Baroque violin
and Natalie Rotenberg-harpsichord. The artists performed on period
instruments, the least mainstream of them being the viola d’amore, an
alto Baroque instrument similar to the viol but unfretted and held under
the chin. Mixto Genere was established in 2004. All three members are
graduates of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance; all have
specialized in the playing of early- and modern instruments, all are
soloists and truly versatile artists. Anna Ioffe is a soprano singer, arranges
works and plays Baroque and modern violin and viola d’amore; Natalie
Rotenberg is a soprano, a composer, plays piano, positive (organ) and
harpsichord; Alina Keitlin is a mezzo-soprano and composer, plays
Baroque violin, modern violin and viola. In
a repertoire ranging from early- to contemporary music, the ensemble
performs in concerts, opera productions and in major festivals in Israel
and abroad and has had works written for it.
Anna Ioffe explained that the viola
d’amore she plays has seven playing strings and seven sympathetic
strings. The beautifully carved figure on the head of her viola d’amore
is Amor (god of love) blindfolded, representing love, which is blind.
With flexible tuning, this instrument was tuned to a D major chord for
the purpose of the music played. This instrument
was built by the Czech violin-maker Vaclav Svoboda in 2001. Ioffe
received her first lessons from the renowned Czech viola d’amore player
Jaroslav Horak, later receiving a master’s degree in Baroque violin and
viola d’amore under the guidance of Daniel Fradkin.
Of the several works scored for the
viola d’amore, the program included two pieces by Attilio Ariosti
(1666-1740) (Ariosti himself was a virtuoso player of the viola d’amore)
opening with the aria "Pur alfin gentil viola” (So at last, gentle
Viola), from a cantata of around 1690 of the same title for solo voice,
viola d’amore and basso continuo, possibly one of the first works
written for the viola d’amore. In the text, the constant violet prevails
over the proud and haughty rose, the violet being an association (and
play-on-words) with the viola d’amore. In the present setting, with the
violin (Keitlin) taking on the role of the singer, the aria was
presented in richly crafted, mellifluous and unmannered playing. In
Ariosti’s Sonata in G from volume 3 of his Stockholm Sonatas, the
artists brought out the music’s characteristic contrasts, energy and
humor. Louis de Caix
d’Hervelois’ (c.1670-1759) typically French character pieces "La
gracieuse” and "L’inconstant” (arranged for viola d’amore and b.c.) from
his "Pièces de voile”(Pieces for Viol) were given a sympathetic
reading, vibrato used sparingly and only in the name of embellishment,
the viola d’amore’s true, beguiling and sweet-sounding appeal saying all.
Remaining in France, we heard
François Couperin’s (1668-1733) "Ritratto dell’Amore” (Portrait of Love)
from the "Concerts royaux” (Paris, 1722) performed by Alina Keitlin and
Natalie Rotenberg. As would have been the practice at Louis XIV’s
Sunday chamber music concerts, Keitlin announced each movement in turn;
several of the work’s movements bear names that are whimsical, for court
music is to be both entertaining and witty. In playing that was
carefully nuanced, at times majestic, at times coquettish, the artists
presented the music with the wink of an eye, their tempi never
overstepping the boundaries of good taste. From Couperin’s "L’art de
toucher le Clavecin” (The Art of Playing the Harpsichord) Rotenberg
performed "La Favorite” (The Favored One), a rondeau-chaconne (however,
not in triple time), the title referring to Madame de Maintenon, who had
secretly married the king. Rotenberg’s playing of the piece is
energetic, directional and engaging, yet addressing its noble, grand and
solemn aspects. On hearing Michel Corrette’s (1707-1795) Sonata no.2
"Dans le goût italien” (In Italian taste) one is reminded of the fact
that the composer had compiled two important books on violin playing –
"The Art of Playing the Violin Perfectly” and "The School of Orpheus” (a
violin treatise focusing on French and Italian styles.) Keitlin and
Ioffe gave a well coordinated performance of this fine piece of writing,
concluding the section of French works on the program.
Love in the professional life of
German composer and trombonist Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684) led to his
scandalous arrest and imprisonment in 1655; managing to escape,
however, he made his way to Venice, where he realized the synthesis of
German and Italian instrumental styles. Hearing his Sonata prima in g
minor for two violins and basso continuo brought home the importance of
this towering figure of the German Baroque, a composer not heard
frequently enough in our concert halls.
If love is folly, that would more than justify the artists’ playing of Antonio
Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) Trio Sonata in d minor "La Follia” opus 1 no.12
(1705), the sonata consisting of a theme and 19 variations. Following
the composer’s strategic building up of speed and virtuosity, retreating
into calmer moods, a Siciliano rhythm and Vivaldi-concerto-type
moments, the performance abounded in interest, contrasts, vivacity and
delicate passagework, its florid, brilliant moments never a substitute
for expressiveness. Two other works performed, also composed to ostinato
(ground) basses, were a Passacaglia by the famed Italian lutenist and
chitarrone player Antonio Falconieri (1585/6-1656) and "Aria sopra la
Bergamesca” by Marco Uccellini 1603-1680) maestro di capella to the
royal courts of Modena and Parma. In the Bergamesca (suggesting a
connection with Bergamo) with its simple I-IV-V-I harmonic scheme but
technically sparkling melodies - probably based on folk music - the
players colored their playing with dancelike exuberance…spiced with a
fleeting jazzy phrase!
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