May 11, 2024
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
“Tu sei amore: Music in my heart”
Alexandra Dunbar, harpsichord; Jody Miller, recorder; Adrin Akins, countertenor; Marcy Jean Brenner, viola da gamba.
Francesca CACCINI: Maria, dolce Maria
Giovanni BASSANO: Divisions on “Io canterei d’amor”
August KÜHNEL: Herr Jesu Christ
Johann Sebastian BACH: Air from Suite 3, BWV 1068
Francesco BARSANTI:Sonata VI in B-flat Major
Alessandro SCARLATTI: Dormi, o fulmine di guerra
Johann Sebastian BACH: Excerpts from Goldberg Variationen, BWV 988
Johann Sebastian BACH: “Schlafe, mein Leibster, genieße der Ruh” from Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248
Jon Ciliberto | 20 MAY 2024
I have a particular fondness for our small, local Baroque ensembles. They bring to my (likely fantastical) mind groups of highly talented musicians and composers not fixed in place in a court orchestra from the 16th century: travelers, free spirits, or just lovers of music-making for itself in smaller, more personal settings.
As I say, it is a fantasy since the musicians in Atlanta’s groups are attached to universities, symphonies, and so forth. But, allow me my imagination, as a listener, entering an imaginary state is a sine qua non for being a good listener.
Amethyst Baroque, the ensemble formed in 2017 by harpsichordist Dr. Alexandra Snyder Dunbar and recorder player Jody Miller, with Adrin Akins (countertenor) and Marcy Jean Brenner (viola da gamba), who joined in 2018, performed a somewhat Mother’s Day-themed program at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church on May 11.
Giovanni Bassano’s set of Divisions over the melody from “Io canterei d’amor,” something of a “teaching” piece, brought me right into the space of 16th-century chamber music. Ms. Dunbar played a small organ and Mr. Miller a precise, clear recorder above it, sometimes soaring in flight, other times weaving amongst the organ’s earthy tone.
Although without voice in Bassono’s “division,” the performance by Amethyst Baroque brought me something of Petrarch’s sentiment in his sonnet 131, the verse connected with the musical source: that of the combined awareness of my own inability to express much novel about beautiful music with the wonder that I am able to experience it:
in this brief life, but only glory
at having been born in this late age. [1]
I found particular delight in the feeling of closeness between the instruments and textural choices. The tones of organ and recorder blended beautifully.
Textural choices came to my ear as well in “Herr Jesu Christ,” variations on a hymn by August Kühnel. Bowing nearer to the bridge of a stringed instrument produces a brighter sound, farther a more muted one. Ms. Brenner chose carefully, calling out aspects of variations and also sparking relationships with Ms. Dunbar’s measured harpsichord. A somewhat generous beat on the quarter note rest appearing at the start of many of the measures contributed to conveying the work’s careful thoughtfulness. [2]
Positioned on the eve of Mother’s Day, the program took its most (only?) direct connection with that occasion from “Maria, dolce Maria,” composed by the noted female Florentine composer Francesca Caccini. Ostensibly about the Virgin Mary, it was perhaps too for her patron, Archduchess Maria Magdalena. Countertenor Akins was paired with Ms. Dunbar, harpsichord. Again, I may bring my own ear to reach such conclusions, but their performance struck me as highly present and personal, even while including substantial expressive qualities and the precise vocal technique required of the work. Performers have the choice of setting a level of expression; to me, early Baroque works like this are properly somewhat austere, and more specifically, some restraint suits a song to Mary, emphasizing her “name which tempers and consoles every sorrow, calm voice which assuages every disquiet, which composes every heart, which gladdens every soul.”
Amethyst Baroque Ensemble performing at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, May 11, 2024. (credit:Jon Ciliberto)
Some of the other tie-ins to Mother’s Day were perhaps a bit more of a stretch, but as they revealed aspects of the players’ personalities, they added to the personable and welcoming quality of Amethyst Baroque.
Francesco Barsanti’s recorder sonatas, too, showed the ensemble’s easy-to-like demeanor. Shifting points of rhythmic emphasis in the work’s second movement (“Non tanto Allegro”), were handled with interest, and the interplay of gamba and recorder stood out to me. The group seemed really to hit their stride on the final Allegro, altogether wonderfully in the same musical mindset.
In introducing “Dormi, o fulmine di guerra” from Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio La Giuditta, Mr. Akins was careful to sketch enough of a picture to mark as significant its contemporary relevance. While it might be true that the final three works on the program all relate to sleep in some fashion or another, Scarlatti’s work concerns more specifically the attempt by the Israelite Judith to lull the enemy Assyrian General Holofernes to drunken sleep in order to murder him. Mr. Akins chose, diplomatically, to cast the song in terms of seeking peaceful (i.e., slumbering) ends to conflict. Regardless, it was movingly sung. The full ensemble performed it, and the instruments, especially Ms. Dunbar’s organ, lent a softer, less clipped-parade-ground quality.
Illustration from the concert by Jon Ciliberto.
After Ms. Dunbar performed a selection of variations from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the entire ensemble closed the evening with the peaceful “Schlafe, mein Leibster, genieße der Ruh,” Bach’s aria for the second day of Christmas. The easy, almost folk melodies merged wonderfully with the instrumentation and performance.
and awaken after it for all the fortunate!
Let your heart delight,
experience the joy
that rejoices our hearts! [3]
Such optimism was conveyed musically, even in these dark times. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Amethyst Baroque Ensemble: amethystbaroque.com
- [1] Petrarch: Sonnet 131
- [2] August Kühnel: “Herr Jesu Christ” | International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- [3] J.S. Bach: Schlafe, mein Liebster, genieße der Ruh’ | Vocal Music Instrumentation Index (VMII)
Read more by Jon Ciliberto.
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