Asterix's Expressions

John Eliot Gardiner and Mozart

John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique came to San Francisco to perform Mozart's c-minor Mass and Requiem last Monday. Naturally, this concert opportunity was irresistable. After all, when was the last time a world-known conductor brought together famous musicians who played period instruments and sang in period style, to perform two of the greatest choral works of all time, right to your doorstep?

Okay, I admit, San Francisco isn't exactly my "doorstep," but it's close enough that venturing there is a price well worth the experience one receives from a performance that parallels a chorus of angels singing in heaven. At least, that's how I felt about it.

So, Grace, Madhura, and I made our way up to SF to listen to/watch this performance, and we had a great time. Before I delve into the gory details of the performance, I would just like to mention that this concert was Madhura's first time at a classical performance, and she enjoyed it.

Okay, now I go into the details, which can be as simple this statement: Mozart's choral music with period instruments and period song style is simply heavenly. The period instrumentation movement has been growing in the past decade or so, with John Eliot Gardiner being in the forefront of it.

For me, personally, I like period performances of music from the baroque and classical eras, not simply because I think it's more appropriate to interpret music this way than with modern instruments and styles, but because I feel period performances sound better. For instance I really like the light, pure, and almost airy sound of the strings. Period woodwind instruments are also less piercing than their modern counterpart, especially the baroque oboe d'amore. It brings forth a sound that is neither sharp nor muffled, but one that is elegant and gentle. An oboe d'amore playing in a minor key can convey effectively a sorrowful feeling. Period voices, too, are pure and angelic, with restrained uses of vibrato. Like so, the music from Gardiner's performance was never invasive, whether it was fiery and full of energy like Qui tollis or sweet and gentle like Et incarnatus est. In general, the period music conjured a comfortable and warm feeling from me.

In addition to the period interpretation, I also noticed the following:

1. The eight soloists-four for each mass-all sang in the choir proper. During solos within a choral movement, they simply turned toward the audience to sing. On movements with only solo singers, they walked from the choir and stood at front stage. This setup is similar to the concerto grosso model, where soloists who play the concertato parts also play the ripieno parts on non-solo passages. Considering the time period when these pieces of music were written, this setup certainly makes sense, since the concerto grosso was also popular during that same century. I have mused to myself from time to time that I would rather sing in the choir than solo, because there are usually more choral than solo movements in a particular mass for a single voice-part. Now with Gardiner's setup, soloists are great because they get to sing the solo parts in addition to all the choir parts!

2. The Et incarnatus est movement consists of a quartet: first sorprano solo, transverse flute, oboe d'amore, and bassoon, with strings and organ accompaniment. Period instruments, in my opinion, sounds more like human voices than their modern counterparts do. As a result, having a mixed quartet of human voice and woodwind instruments do not seem that strange an idea. As Mozart is known to have written beautiful voice quartets-I'm thinking of his operas-this one is no exception. I think the first soprano soloist did a good job of blending with the three solo instruments. Plus, she stood right next to the instrumentalists for that solo, a position that makes perfect sense.

3. Because the c-minor Mass was set to a five-part chorus and sometimes to a double-chorus, the singers shifted positions on stage to form an eight-part chorus from a five part one, and vice versa. The exchange of positions worked seemlessly and very quickly-not an easy feat even between movements! I was a little astonished that Gardiner chose to reorganize the choir. Musically, it does make sense, as he is trying to balance the voices. However, I still think the on-stage shifting of positions is a bit too distracting. Perhaps a compromise position that does not involve movement works better. I will have a diagram later to illustrate my point.

4. Three men sang alto parts, even though there were an equal number of men and women on the choir-fifteen and fifteen. For the c-minor Mass, it makes sense because there are three female voice parts and only two male voice parts-soprano 1, soprano 2, alto, tenor, and bass, respectively. However, the same was true with the Requiem, where there are an equal number of voice parts between the men and the women. So the latter made less sense to me. Perhaps Gardiner wanted more sopranos and altos than tenors and basses, but I don't know why.

5. The soloists were awesome. Their voices projected very well but remained gentle calm to the ear. In general, I think the ladies did a slightly better job than the men in terms of projection, but they were both stellar.

6. Gardiner took care to bring out the dynamics changes of the choral movements, something that often gets lost in performances with large choirs. One example in the Requiem is the final build-up to the climax at the end of the Kyrie. The contrast in the volume between the start of that crescendo and the climax made a powerful statement at the end of the Kyrie.

7. My dad gave me a Nikon binocular for Christmas, and it really came in handy! The binocular helped me identify the choir sections, and it gave me a close look of some of the instruments from all the way at the top of the second balcony in Davies Symphony Hall. From the looks of the light-blue covers of the Requiem score that every choir member was carrying, I'm guessing that they were using the Baerenreiter urtext choir score.

Okay, this post is already too long, so I'll stop here and maybe post more later. I'll end with Gardiner's orchestration for the c-minor Mass:

transverse flute (recorder)
2 oboe d'amores
2 bassoons
2 french horns (?)
2 trumpets (not sure which key)
3 trombones
timpani in C and G
10 first violins
8 second violins
6 violas
6 first sopranos
6 second sopranos
6 altos (three women and three men)
6 tenors
6 bassses
5 cellos
3 double basses
organ

There were a total of forty-six instrumentalists and thirty singers, plus John Eliot Gardiner conducting, so seventy-seven people on stage.

posted by Asterix @ 4:10 PM