Celebrate Baroque, Octagon Ensemble, St Paul’s Cathedral, Dunedin, Sunday, October 22.
Octagon Ensemble, now well-established on the local classical music scene, presented an excellent baroque recital in St Paul’s Cathedral yesterday.
Several internationally experienced musicians and director John Buchanan ensured the entire programme was stylistically baroque and the large audience were unanimous in their appreciation of works not often heard live.
J.S. Bach (1685 -1750) wrote Concerto in C Major BWV 1061 for keyboard in the 1730s. A later addition with strings in the style of an Italian concerto was performed yesterday by Kemp English and Sharon McLennan (pianos), with string ensemble for the first and last movements. The second piano (an 1883 Ibach grande recently restored by Alexander Pianos) certainly added a sonority which Bach could never have envisaged in his time of early keyboards, but reduced rhythmic definition in the cathedral acoustics, despite impeccable shaping and virtuosity.
O numi eterni (Lucrezia), an early operatic style of cantata, required impassioned vocal delivery from Lucrezia (Tessa Romano), accompanied by instrumental continuo from harpsichord (Sanaz Rezai) and cello (Boudewijn Keenan). Rage, vengeance, self-condemnation and shame preceded Lucrezia’s suicide. Romano excelled, comfortable in her vocal register, throwing herself into narrative interpretation with brilliant stylistic ornamentation.
Bach’s Concerto in D Major for Two Violins 1043 featured guest NZSO violinists Vesa-Matti Leppannen and Yuka Eguchi in a beautiful performance which called for both strong melodic segments and delicate duo dialogue passages in the unaccompanied Largo movement. A chamber orchestra of a dozen strings also excelled.
My Heart is Inditing, composed by Handel for the coronation of George II and Queen Caroline, also known as Coronation Anthem No 3, was Handel’s first commission as a naturalised British citizen. An anthem in character, but not in typically robust style, was very appropriate for a queen. Soloists Cathy Sim (soprano), Romano (alto), Griffin Nicol (tenor) and Jesse Hanan (bass) achieved sincere deliveries, with an ensemble of 20 voices plus the string ensemble with added trumpet and woodwinds, and finally completed a thrilling baroque experience with Amen from Messiah.
