MAURICE STEGER : RECORDER REVOLUTIONARY @ CITY RECITAL HALL ANGEL PLACE

New-ImageBRanMaurice-BBB

This is not the recorder as you usually know it. For their opening concert of the year, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with virtuoso guest artist Maurice Steger gave a thrilling , jaw-dropping performance of Baroque and early Classical pieces including masterpieces from Telemann, Handel and Geminiani, and the most challenging virtuosic piece Vivaldi ever wrote, his Concerto in G major for recorder.

With a string of prestigious awards including Diapason Dor, BBC Music Magazine Award and 2015 ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year, Steger has captivated the music world . He has developed a technique where the harmonic spectrum of the tone subtly cuts and adapts and changes through the orchestral background. Steger’s playing revealed him to be a charismatic and flamboyant performer.

Paul Dyer introduced the concert at the beginning and joyously conducted from the keyboard of his harpsichord.

Steger and the Orchestra established a warm rapport from the start. We began with Vivaldi’s Concerto in G major, RV 443 (played on the descant recorder), with its blisteringly fast solos. Steger’s playing was jaw droppingly good, and he managed to include all the Baroque ornaments into each solo passage. The middle Largo with its enfolding repeats featured give and take with the Orchestra, a very intense interaction. Steger dances and sways hypnotically, often in a circular motion or a deep plie.

Gallo’s Sonata No 12 in G Minor followed. Nicknamed La Follia, or “madness”, this Portuguese dance with its elaborately complex passages was intriguing as it began slowly then became a little brighter in mood, leading to a brisk second movement with bustling strings and then a sunnier yet slower and more refined ending coming to a powerful conclusion .The tricky fiendishly difficult cello passages were splendidly played.

Telemann’s Concerto for Three Trumpets in D Major that followed with its glittering , shimmering opening was majestic and pulsating.

Steger returned to the stage, using a treble recorder this time, leading the orchestra in Nicola Fiorenza’s Sinfonia in A Minor. There was particular empathy between Steger and the swirling, breathy strings in the second movement, the strings pleading in the third, whilst in the final Allegro assai was sharp, intense and agitated with a virtuoso display featuring cascading notes from Steger.

The Largo introduction of Handel’s Overture to Judas Maccabeus opened the second half of the programme, and was lush and exotic in tone. Using a sopranino recorder Steger showed off the instrument’s birdlike abilities in Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major, Op. 10 No 3, Il gardellino (The Goldfinch) in sharp, expressive dialogue with the Orchestra. The second movement’s ground bass almost droning accompaniment to Steger’s lyrical , fluid ‘ aria’ on the recorder created a great contrast in mood. Steger’s imitations of birdsong were thrilling and the third movement had spiky strings. At the end of the piece there was massive, thunderous applause.

Ciaccona a 7 in C Major  by Philipp Jakob Rittler that followed was a mesmerising performance of a work that actually sounded very contemporary. There were changes in configuration and the orchestra was pruned to a very small chamber group. The work began softly , almost imperceptibly , with Tommie Anderson on Theorbo, followed by cellist Anthea Cottee, eventually joined by strings, trumpets and viola . A short , rather upbeat yet thoughtful work, it then began to fade away as each instrument dropped out symmetrically to how it had entered. A very atmospheric and impressive idea was that each player exited the stage as they finished their score, the piece ending in darkness. A stunning rendition.

In the Concerto No 10 in F Major by Francesco Geminiani, Steger, using a treble recorder, was charismatic and dazzling , expressive and captivating. The Largo section was fragile, with a soaring lament, while in other sections he was darting and pulsating in a breathless conversation with the Orchestra . The final movement in particular was blisteringly fast, Steger tapping his foot at times.

With this piece, the concert program had formally come to a close but the  rapturous audience demanded  more and were rewarded by an encore with Steger treating us to a floating, soaring and poignant slow movement from Vivaldi’s Chamber Concerto in D Major, La Pastorella, revealing again Steger’s amazing virtuosity.

Running time – 2 hours including one interval.

THE AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA’S concert MAURICE STEGER : RECORDER REVOLUTIONARY is playing the City Recital Hall, Angel Place various dates until the 5th March.