Home | Reviews | Articles | Festivals | Competitions | Other | Contact Us
Google
WWW MUSICALPOINTERS

Charpentier 300th Anniversary Concert Wigmore Hall, 19 March 2004

Charpentier Divertissement;Troisieme Leçon de ténèbres; Sonata a 8;
Comédie-ballet 'Le mariage forcé'
Boismortier Cantata 'Diane et Actéon', Op. 67
   

Florilegium Ashley Solomon Artistic Director
Patrizia Kwella soprano
Tim Massa countertenor
Andrew Tortise tenor
Thomas Guthrie bass

Ashley Solomon/Andrew Crawford flutes
Kati Debretzeni violin.
Clare Salaman violin/viola
Katherine McGillivray viola.
Reiko Ichise viola da gamba
Jennifer Morsches cello/bass violin
Eligio Quinteiro theorbo/guitar
James Johnstone harpsichord/organ


This was a well planned and well attended celebratory concert, which showed Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645-1704) in contrasting guises, sacred and secular. Instrumental items displayed his telling orchestration, with two gentle baroque flutes a welcome foil to the predominance of strings.

Patrizia Kwella gave what was believed to be the first performance in modern times of Boismortier's Cantata Diane et Actéon, a cautionary tale of the fate which awaits a missed opportunity; Actéon, hesitant in responding to an offer of love, the affronted Diane turned him into a stag and he was promptly devoured by her hounds. Patrizia Kwella seemed tense at first, but settled during this cantata, which has not deserved its seeming neglect.

One of Charpentier's Leçons de ténèbres was given by Thomas Guthrie in sonorous voice and, together with Tim Massa countertenor & Andrew Tortise, a forthright and winning tenor, the programme ended with the rather heavy humour of Charpentier's comédie-ballet Le Mariage forcé which culminates with a cacophony of dogs, cats, nightingales and jackasses singing in chorus.

Don't miss next week's performance of Charpentier's great oratorio David et Jonathas
at The Barbican, 27 March!

 

© Peter Grahame Woolf