January 22, 2004

Phyllis Rosenblum: Classical Beat
Experts pay tribute to harpsichord

“The Harpsichord Comes of Age,” a lively program which featured the harpsichord not only in Baroque but contemporary music, was the Santa Cruz Chamber Players greeting to the new year.

Jonathan Salzedo, presiding at the keyboard, gave an entertaining and informative introduction to each selection. Five elite local players joined him in various combinations of instruments.

The Chamber Players inaugurated a new venue with this concert, Christ Lutheran Church in Soquel. The hall’s angled walls and soaring heavy-beamed wooden ceiling produce a bright, non-echoey acoustic. The contemporary in-the- half-round seating provides a spacious intimacy. This church is now home base for Players – and their recently purchased piano.

A tangy 1995 work, Partita Pastorale, by Jan Hanus, opened the program. Salzedo had commented that, taken separately, each instrumental line sounded quite nice; however, played together, the result was shocking.

With that helpful warning, I enjoyed the work’s odd combinations and permutations of Baroque-style elements. Carol Panofsky, on recorders, both the soprano and the tiny sopranino, added a perky sparkle to the “Vivace” and “Allegro” movements.

For Bach’s Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1020, Lars Johannesson impressed us by playing his modern silver flute in authentic Baroque style — with a gentle tone and carefully moderated vibrato, as well as period- appropriate ornamentation. He later showed his versatility by playing modern works in a fitting bright, vibrant manner.

Salzedo introduced Bach’s Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering) with comments about the role of improvisation in Baroque music. He noted that present-day conservatory students have little or no experience with improvisation. It’s now the province of jazz players.

In the Medieval and Baroque eras, the situation was the reverse: Popular music was played “by the book” and more formal music depended on players’ improvisation. In the work’s set of variations, Amy Brodo, cello, joined the harpsichord’s “continuo” (bass line) and displayed impressive agility in the energetic passages.

Returning to the 20th century, all six players came together for Manuel de Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord. A mini-orchestra of violin, cello, flute, oboe and clarinet produced a surprisingly big, muscular sound, as the harpsichord resounded with harsh declamatory chords and sped neatly through runs and ripples.

An encore demanded enthusiastically by the audience, Satumaa (Fabulous Land), a tango by Finnish composer Unto Mononen ended the evening on a light, upbeat note. Violinist Karen Bentley, told us that this now-obscure piece had briefly topped the charts in Europe in the 1960s — supplanted only by the Beatles’ hit, All My Loving.

Bentley, swaying energetically as she played, amplified the tango spirit with resounding foot-stomps at the music’s dramatic moments. Clarinetist Mark Sowlakis sizzled in his extravagant jazzy riffs.

Contact Phyllis Rosenblum at arozena@pacbell.net.
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