Music Lane

Posted by C.B. (A) on April 13, 2005 at 04:51:11

In Reply to: Historic Instrument Performance posted by Bambi B on April 12, 2005 at 18:26:25:

because I was busy going at it with Severius about vibrato, and as it turns out, all of his replies were deleted!

Having been an advocate of HIP since my undergraduate years in the late '60s, I have often found myself rigorously on the side of period instruments and the style of playing that goes with them.

But lately, I've been taking another course. What interested me then, and interests me even more today, is basic interpretation and musicianship.

If you look back on the '60s, the gods then were the Concentus Musicus for orchestral music, with an assist from the Collegium Aurium, and Leonhardt on harpsichord. I dare say that if you were a fan of old music and instruments, these were the records you collected.

Later, the English groups came into the picture. I can remember the excitement I felt when the first recordings of the English Concert and the Academy of Ancient Music came out in the late '70s. I always felt that if and when both the English and the Italians got into the early music field, the results would be spectacular.

Now, of course, there are many, many groups and soloists from around the world active in the early music game. Orchestras from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia have supplemented the established groups in England and the Continent. The trend was already in full swing in 1995 when I became the review editor of Continuo Magazine. I was amazed to be receiving 100s of CDs a year (all free!), most of them of newly-formed groups from areas of the world that heretofore had not seen any activity in the early music field. Now, of course, with the downturn of activity in the recording business, the flood of CDs has diminished greatly. Some "weeding-out" has taken place, and only those performers who really have something to offer are enduring.

I suppose as one gets older, one tends to be less "doctrinaire". It is no longer an absolute for me that the group in question should play only period instruments at a lower pitch. What matters to me now is the expression, the style. Case in point is (are) Les Violons du Roy out of Montreal, a marvelous string orchestra that uses modern instruments with steel strings, but old curved bows, and plays baroque music with the requisite style. Sounds like a weird compromise, but their CD of Vivaldi concertos on Dorian is possibly the most beautiful, exciting disc of Vivaldi ever recorded, beating out the Italians in this repertoire.

Nowadays I’m more apt to pick up my modern oboe and play a piece of Telemann or Handel with friends, simply because I can find more people at 440Hz to jam with than at 415Hz! My wife and I joined a community band last year (we’re the oboe section), and it’s a blast. I also play in a woodwind quintet formed from the band, and I’ve been arranging music for the band, too. I’ve already done several Scott Joplin piano rags for band, and my latest project is Gershwin’s Three Preludes for Piano, which, if I can pull it off, should an ideal piece for concert band.

I think it’s folly to limit yourself to one style or genre, and I know plenty of old-instrument nuts who do. I also think that the HIP movement has come up short in some areas—Beethoven symphonies, for example. Except possibly for Gardiner, there isn’t a HIP conductor out there who really understands how to do Beethoven, which is why I still listen to the heroes of my youth in this music—Szell, Toscanini, Walter. As I get older (I’m 56), I trying to expand my musical possibilities, not limit them. HIP is just aspect of music—there’s lots more music out there to explore.

BTW--would that friend in Paris happen to be Yolanta Skura? I remember corresponding with her about their upcoming recording projects. Very nice lady--I miss having contact with the recording "scene" and people like that.