Mélomanie at Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church

By Chuck Holdeman, Guest Blogger

Chuck is a composer, a bassoonist, and a faculty member of the Music School of Delaware. He lives in Wilmington with a studio in Philadelphia. His website is www.chuckholdeman.com

Sunday afternoon, April 18, witnessed a beautiful concert by Wilmington-based Mélomanie, the ensemble devoted to Baroque period instruments and to new music by regional composers. On this occasion, the group was presented by Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church, across the road from Winterthur, and the Hadley Memorial Fund, which provided free admission.

The illness of violinist Fran Berge necessitated a program change with the welcome addition of substitute fiddler, Christof Richter of Philadelphia. The ensemble drew from its repertoire, saving ‘til next season Mark Rimple’s Partita 622, which will also be included in the group’s recording project of five new works, all commissioned by Mélomanie.

J. P. Rameau’s first Pièce de Clavecin en Concert opened the program, with music written for the court of the King Louis, the one right before the French revolution. The music is mannered, precious, and charming, also with daring juxtapositions of texture and mood, quite unlike Rameau’s contemporaries. Featuring harpsichordist Tracy Richardson, the grouping was completed by flute, violin, and Donna Fournier’s viola da gamba.

Two solo pieces followed: Mark Hagerty’s Sea Level for solo flute, played by Kim Reighley on the luscious-sounding alto flute, and Bach’s G-major suite for ‘cello, performed with infectious musicality and individuality by Doug McNames. Hagerty’s work displays arresting harmony despite being for an instrument that can only play one note at a time, also referring indirectly to the evocative poetry of its historical antecedent, Syrinx by Debussy.

As Hagerty had, composer Ingrid Arauco introduced her piece, Florescence (blooming) for flute and harpsichord. She expressed gratitude for the multiple performances given by these players, such that each time the sounds merge, clarify, and increasingly express Arauco’s intentions. In three short movements, Florescence shows how an essentially atonal language can be gentle, colorful, and intimate.

The program concluded with Telemann’s Paris Quartet in e minor, played by all five musicians, more mannered music in the French style, though composed by one of the principal masters of the German Baroque. One movement was called “Distrait” (inattentive) in which the witty Telemann created disorienting syncopations. Despite the work’s lightness, he ends with a weighty and sophisticated chaconne.

It was gratifying to see a large and appreciative crowd, and a slightly different one from Mélomanie’s downtown series. May the sounds of this excellent ensemble find even more satisfied ears, in Delaware and beyond!

Coming up: harpsichordist Tracy Richardson and gambist Donna Fournier will present a program for the First & Central Noontime Concert series, Thursday, April 22, at 12:30 PM, 11^th and Market Streets in Wilmington. I am especially pleased that their program will include the premiere of my composition, Six Preludes for solo harpsichord.

See www.melomanie.org

Songs from Afar go Straight to the Heart

The evening began with a beautifully sung prayer led by Cantor Mark Stanton, director of music at Beth Emeth. Last year, a large portion of the building was renovated, and we were seated in the new sanctuary, surrounded by mosaic and stained-glass windows.

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Gerard Edery found himself in Great Neck, New York, by way of Paris. After singing over thirty leading operatic roles, Edery revisited the songs that resonated so deeply with him. He told me he had left his guitar untouched for many years. His guitar playing is fluid, with a stunning, versatile technique and clear tone. His ability to play a complicated passage while singing is notable.

His band, while staying within the structures of the songs, improvised skillfully. Performing with him were two fabulous musicians, Meg Okura (violin and erhu) and Sean Kupisz on a six-stringed bass. Edery promised to give the audience a trip around the world -- and he delivered -- with songs from Morocco, Ireland, France, Turkey, Spain, and other far-away places.

The Sephardic tradition is one that traveled to countries now known as Turkey, Morocco, Greece, and the Balkans as the Jews were cast out of Spain and Portugal in the 15^th Century. Passed down over the years, these songs have taken on some of the qualities of their “final” destinations, but have held firmly to their origins.

Retaining themes of chivalry and poetic love from the Middle Ages, the music speaks loudly and clearly. Each song is like a precious time capsule. In the Moroccan song, Ojos Asesinos, he sings of lost love, “assassin eyes”, that he yearns to see again though friends tell him his wish is crazy. In Margot Labourez Les Vignes (Jacques Arcadelt, Flemmish, 16^th Century), Margot curses men who call her ugly. Tres Hermanicas tells of a young woman, pregnant out of wedlock, who is banished by her father to a stone castle with no windows or doors. Though some selections were not Sephardic, they were rich with history and emotion.

See http://www.sefaradrecords.com

Subs and heros

When you go to the Delaware Symphony, they do not list the extra musicians they hire for a performance. Last Saturday, I was delighted to see pianist Hiroko Yamazaki ready to play for the Kurt Weill Little Threepenny Music (Suite from the Threepenny Opera) – in other words, the jazzy suite which includes songs like Mac the Knife.

Most of the instruments had been cleared from the stage and Ms. Yamazaki ripped off ragtime/honkytonk sounds that blended seamlessly with the trombone, banjo, guitar and accordion. For a moment, it seemed we were in pre-war Berlin with Sally Bowles in a Kneipe enjoying a St. Pauli Girl in dim light.

But in the next piece, the pianist turned into an expert vibrationist, playing single sustained notes and holding the pedal so the plaintive string sounds in the Symphony of sorrowful songs by Henrik Mikolaj Gorecki could seek their reflected harmonics from the soundboard of the piano – a mysteriously rousing effect.

Whernever Ms. Yamazaki is playing – be it accompanying Twinkle twinkle, little star in a beginner’s Suzuki instrumental recital or zipping into a Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, she puts her heart into it.

She is a hero, not just a sub.