Four chamber soloists from the ranks of orchestra seventeen88 entertained a welcoming audience with programmed works in the early Romantic period style which was being pioneered from 1808 to 1816.
Consisting of two clarinet quintets and a string trio, the concert and players clearly demonstrated instrumentation and performance trends of the time.
Fashions such as introducing the clarinet to ensembles and using an instrumental pasticcio-like borrowing of music were presented. Such concepts were made accessible to the audience via explanations from performers and in the programme notes.
This orchestra’s goals to educate, enlighten and inspire us was supported through succinct and accessible descriptions of the period of music under scrutiny and the instruments being used.
Explanations of the early instruments or replicas were clear and interesting for those in attendance. This communication supported by fine playing makes the orchestra and its chamber soloists essential to the development of concert audiences in this country.
As such, this was a refreshing and interesting Historically Informed Performance. Often HIP concerts using early instruments can focus on much earlier decades, creating sounds by now quite familiar to audiences. The early transition to the Romantic period contained experiments in timbre, format of musical works and ensembles whilst playing the existing instruments.
Such environments and soundscapes in all their uniqueness were vividly created in this concert for us. Period instruments were heard in all their guises with new sounds and a new expression in progress.
The concert began with an obscure work but a perfect case in point of the above, namely Vincenzo Gambaro’s Quartet No 1 for clarinet, violin, viola and cello in B flat major (1810).
Nicole van Bruggen’s clarinet soared over Haydn’s amended string quartet tapestry as the clarinet replaced the first violin. This work was assembled from no less than five movements from separate Haydn quartets.
Due to the skilful flexiblity and reliable cantabile tone of Nicole van Bruggen’s clarinet playing, the uniqueness of this work succeeded in presenting the burgeoning ideals of the Romantic period in its infancy. The poignant tone of the well-articulated clarinet part was well supported by the blend of strings and wind as well as the eighteenth and nineteenth century outlooks.
As perhaps was the case in 1810, in this concert the work rearranging Haydn’s original perfection remained a tribute to him and a treat for the audience using familiar music with a modern or remixed twist. The opening movement from ‘The Sunrise’ quartet shone in this performance, perfectly illustrating the programmatic enhancement possible with the addition of clarinet.
At the centre of the concert the string players Rachael Beesley (violin), Simon Oswell (viola) and Michael Dahlenburg (cello) presented a nicely shaped version of Schubert’s Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello in B flat major D471 (1816). Continuing the exquisite blend already heard, the single movement work continued with steady momentum.
Gentle intimacy with alternating delicate and robust rendering of the work’s contrasts were to the fore throughout. It was a decent break from the clarinet quartets and the acoustic in the Sydney Grammar School space served this work well.
It was with the Hummel Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola and violoncello s78/W5 (1808) that the chamber soloists demonstrated the most exciting ensemble performance. They passionately delivered the forward-thinking Romantic qualities in Hummel’s work.
The stormy second movement, ‘La Seccatura’, delivered a strong and sustained statement from its complex framework. Dramatic shifts in colour in the final movement and indeed others were enhanced at every opportunity and gesturing in both wind or string runs was dynamic but never laboured by these experts in their craft.
As an encore the quartet played the Rondo from Quartet in Bb, Op 83 by Franz Krommer to further flesh out the period being studied in a dazzling coda to the event.
The concert was performed at the Sydney Grammar School’s Big Schoolroom, College Street Darlinghurst on Saturday 9th July.