BWW Reviews: Tempesta di Mare's GREAT BOOKS Program is One for the Books

Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia's premier exponent of Baroque music, performed its opening "Great Books" concert on May 11, 2012 at Arch Street Friends Meeting House. The land for the Meeting House was donated to it in 1693, well within the Baroque period, though its early 19th Century construction date and its plain style are perhaps a shade out of synch with the 17th and 18th Century composition dates and the ornamentation of the music performed. Nonetheless, its acoustics are suitable and the accommodations are comfortable, and so the audience was properly ensconced for the occasion.

Although the theme was "Great Books," only listening, not reading, was required, as the theme covered several Baroque compositions based in literary works, in this case as diverse as Cervantes and Ovid. The recital opened with perhaps the best-known of the works, Purcell's "Suite from The Fairy Queen," written to accompany masques for a 1692 performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Although lyrics were written for songs within the original play, Tempesta di Mare confined itself to the incidental music, beginning with the prelude and its notable cello presence, and a hornpipe brought in with a fine bassoon line. Emlyn Ngai's violin persistently led the string line of the piece to the section's usual heights throughout. The suite concludes with the Chaconne for the Chinese Man and Woman, which, not surprisingly for music of the period, had no Asian influence to the sound. Interestingly, however, there are a few phrases in it reminiscent of motifs from Handel's Sarabande from his Suite in D Minor (perhaps better known to some as the theme from "Barry Lyndon.")

The Purcell was followed by Telemann's "Burlesque de Quixotte," based on Cervantes' work. The overture was ushered in with cheerful string and woodwind lines and with nicely evident harpsichord work by Adam Pearl in music that was unmistakably Telemann's composition. Like the book, Telemann's music is suffused with humor, particularly in the section in which Quixote awakens - beginning as a pastoral morgaenstemning, the drones of his snores come in along with his being shaken awake rudely. Equally amusing were the compositions for Quixote's horse Rosinante and for Sancho Panza's donkey; as with other portions of the Burlesque, the percussion by Michelle Humphreys made the intent of the music come to life.

The third piece was Marc-Antoine Charpentier's incidental music for Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid". Charpentier was a substitute for J-B Lully, with whom Moliere had fallen out; although the music was prepared in time for the comedie-ballet's opening in 1693, Moliere was struck ill while performing in its fourth performance and then died. The music has no relation to that sorrow, however, and is truly cheerful. The arrangement performed began at the end with hypochondriac Argan's graduation as a physician, in a quietly triumphant processional, that was followed by the cheerful dance for the upholsterers and seamstresses reminiscent of court dances (perhaps not a surprise as Moliere often wrote parts for the King to play in his productions). These were followed by the "Moorish dancers" pieces, which one would not confuse either with English Morris dances or with any music from the Moorish period in Spain; these dances make no pretense of being anything but French Baroque dance tunes, though they are sprightlier than the upholsterers' dance.

The final piece in the evening's program was a suite of Rameau's ballet music for Ovid's (most definitely not Shaw's) "Pygmalion", from "The Metamorphoses" - this being the metamorphosis of a sculptor's statue into a beautiful woman. The suite contained a lengthy "the different characters of the dance" sampling the various dance forms which the Graces attempt to teach the living statue, including a charming gavotte and a sarabande. The audience was treated to some notable moments of Baroque guitar as well as to the Ngai-led strings bringing in some very fine melody lines. The violinists were here a delight to watch; audiences tend to forget that orchestral musicians can and do stand to perform, and the string players' body movement in concert with their bowing was a worthwhile sight for the audience.

"Great Books" is the last concert by Tempesta di Mare for the season. Season tickets for 2013-2014 are currently on sale. Information is available on the orchestra's website, tempestadimare.org.

Photo Credit: Andy Kahl