By Philip A. Metzger Special to The Morning Call
Sunday night’s Valley Vivaldi concert at Allen Organ in Macungie, the second of a four-concert summer series, presented music of the baroque and early classical periods that was by turns charming and substantive, the latter representing some of the best compositions of the period.
The charming works, and I use the term in an entirely unpejorative way, were by Frenchman Jean-Marie Leclair and Italian but transplanted Viennese Mauro Giuliani. The more substantive works were by Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach.
Under the rubric “charming” I refer to Concerto in C for Flute and Strings of Leclair, full of wonderful flute ornamentation, and the Serenade in A for Guitar, Violin and Cello of Giuliani, both full of delightful melodic and rhythmic figures, put together with not inconsiderable musical skill, but without much beyond that.
It’s particularly interesting to think of the work by Giuliani that way. He was a contemporary of Beethoven –and undoubtedly knew him in Vienna — and was reputedly a fine performer on cello and guitar. The serenade had any number of first-rate musical ideas, chief among in my view the telegraphic rhythmic theme which opened the second movement. It’s interesting to think of what Beethoven could have done with such an idea (and did with something very similar in one of his string quartets) – certainly not simply repeat it a half dozen or so times.
On the other side of the coin, Vivaldi’s Sonata for Cello in e minor, here performed with a guitar continuo, and Telemann’s sole (alas) viola concerto make something of a pair. They’re both rich and substantive works, representing some of the best work by each composer (to call these merely “charming” would be an insult). In particular, in the Vivaldi sonata and at least six others he wrote for the instrument, he far surpassed his all-too-frequent cookie-cutter approach to the medium, perhaps made necessary by the sheer number he turned out.
But it’s the Telemann concerto that deserves special recognition. Writing for an instrument that at the time had little or no solo aspirations, he poured in all his musical insights, giving the instrument powerful melodies and soaring virtuoso passages.
Finally, the Bach mentioned earlier was the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, with violin and two flutes solo.
Let me acknowledge the soloists as a group: Mary Ogletree and Rebecca Brown, violins; Agnes Maurer, viola; Deborah Davis, cello; John Arnold, guitar, and Robin Kani and Christine Moulton, flutes. They and their cohorts in the ensemble remind us at each concert how lucky we are to be able to hear such fine musicianship in the Lehigh Valley.
The final two Valley Vivaldi concerts are on Aug.7 and 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Wesley Church, 2540 Center St., Bethlehem. Tickets: $30-$20 adults; $25-$15 seniors, $20-$10 students, 610-434-7811 .
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