Review: Going for Baroque with ENLIGHTENMENT and BULLOCK

The 17th and 18th centuries rode roughshod over the programming at the 92NY (92nd Street Y) the other night, when that brilliant British baroque ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and superb guest soloist, soprano Julia Bullock, bathed the audience in the warmth of what itself acknowledged was a lineup of ‘chestnuts.’

Not that there was anything wrong with that--particularly when played by musicians of the caliber of this chamber orchestra and a guest like Bullock.

Of course, there are chestnuts and there are chestnuts. This program was, in particular, filled mostly with pieces that had the audience humming and tapping along from the very first note of the very first measure of the opener, Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from his opera SOLOMON. Then there was Bach’s lush and majestic Air in D major and Brandenberg concerto #3, the oh-so-familiar Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, along with pieces by Telemann, Lully, Rameau and Vivaldi’s joyous Spring from the Four Seasons (Concerto No 1 in E), among others.

Once upon a time, Baroque music like this was much more present than it is today, when an orchestral concert at the Philharmonic is as likely to play Missy Mazzoli as it is Henry Purcell when looking for something short to insert in the program. Or when the guest soloist, like Bullock, is as likely to be singing something by John Adams (like EL NINO or this season’s premiere at the Met, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA) than Purcell’s “If Love’s Sweet Passion” from THE FAERIE QUEEN.

Get the picture?

So, a program that felt as familiar as this one was a happy blast-from-the-past, judging from the glowing reception--and said about as much about the audience as it did the music. Peter Gelb at the Met insists that including music from the end of the 20th century into our current one help attract a younger group of concertgoers. Yet, there seemed to be as much white hair in the seats for this Baroque evening as there was for contemporary works at the Prototype Festival that just finished up its annual run.

The last piece on the program (the printed part, at least) was Handel’s “Let the Bright Seraphim” from SAMSON, which moved up the stepladder of oldies-but-goodies in 1981 when Kiri te Kanawa sang it at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Di and recorded it with Branford Marsalis.

This time it was a little different, not because of any experimentation on the part of the ensemble, but because of an accident with the group’s trumpet virtuoso, David Blackadder, on its stop in Berkeley. Rather than give up the piece entirely, the orchestra switched from trumpet to oboe to duet with Bullock in the aria. (His accident also affected another change, from Purcell’s Sonata from Trumpet, Strings and Continuo to the slow movement from Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos, marvelously played by Andrew Skidmore and Catherine Rimer.)

Not to cast any aspersions on the wonderful work of oboist Daniel Bates, but I think Handel knew what he was doing when he wrote it for trumpet, particularly considering the timbre of Bullock’s voice, which definitely has an alto-ish tinge to it that might go better with the trumpet.

For good measure, there were a couple of lesser known lights in the evening’s mix, thanks to Bullock’s intervention: The song “Che si puo fare?” by Barbara Strozzi and, the sole encore, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s aria from the opera CEPHALE ET PROCRIS. (Both wild cards were composed by women.) They were both welcome additions to the evening’s more familiar, more clearly Baroque, vocal pieces, which she handled lovingly, including Handel’s “Verdi prati” (ALCINA) and “Da tempeste” (GIULIO CESARE). Both Bullock and the audience seemed to relish the pieces and would have been happy to go on and on.

Photo: Soprano Julia Bullock and oboist Daniel Bates solo in Handel’s “Seraphim…”

Credit: Joseph Sinnott

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