LF 26: The English Concert
St Mary's Church Whitekirk 19/9/26
The English Concert
For our third concert of the day, we found ourselves at the lovely little church in Whitekirk for a delectable concert by six members of the famous English Concert. Founded by Trevor Pinnock in 1972, the English Concert was there right at the beginning of the revolution in performance practice and interpretation of what we call Early Music, that is music before Mozart and Haydn, although those composers themselves were soon being looked at in a new light before long.
Period instruments, either original or exact copies, gut strings, valveless brass, and virtually no vibrato in string playing became the norm. For singers, heavy vibrato and full-throated voice production was reduced to a minimum, and a new type of voice emerged, particularly among the women. Countertenors, who had been exclusively used in cathedral choirs, emerged out of the woodwork in the choir stalls and took their place in the forefront of early music performance, both in ensembles and as soloists.
I was part of the discovery of Renaissance polyphony in Scotland as a member of the St Andrews Renaissance Group as an undergraduate, and began to sing as a soloist with the English Concert ten years into my professional career. From 1991-1997, I sang regularly with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert, in world tours and Deutsche Grammophon recordings, in such places as the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms in the Albert Hall, the Handel Festival in Halle, the Opéra Garnier in Paris and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Handel’s ‘Acis and Galatea’, Purcell’s ‘King Arthur’ and ‘Timon of Athens’, Mozart Mass in C, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Bach’s St Matthew Passion were some of the wonderful works I sang with Trevor and his fabulous orchestra. I moved on to heavier and more recent music after that period, but I will always be grateful for the amazing performances I sang with the English Concert.
This lengthy preamble explains why I was thrilled to be able to attend the concert given by members of the English Concert on Saturday evening in Whitekirk, and I can tell you that the sound even these few players produced was exactly the sound I remember. Trevor Pinnock retired from the Concert in 2003, but his influence on the ensemble continues, and this concert was a reminder of the wonderful achievements of that long and productive collaboration (marked in 2023 by the issue of a 100 disc box set of all the DG recordings, including my two Purcell ones!).
The recital on Saturday was a short excursion into the fascinating world of 17th and 18th century German, Bohemian and Austrian string music, played by two violins, two violas, a cello and a harpsichord. After the excellent but rather loud concert that afternoon in Dirleton Kirk, this recital was much better suited to the warm and cosy acoustic of Whitekirk, and every nuance of the subtle string music was heard clearly.
They started with a Suite in A Minor by the little known composer, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, an overture and four brief dances from 1695, demonstrating Fischer’s understanding of Lully and the French style, interpreted for the German courts of the time. Next we heard a sonata by Heinrich von Biber, who has become known for his huge sacred works written for the amazing acoustic of Salzburg Cathedral, including his Missa Salisburgensis in 1682, for 16 voices and 37 instrumentalists. I have sung in that astonishing Baroque church, and still remember the almost 10 second echo inside! Biber however was most famous at the time for his violin music – with his exceptional technique, he revolutionised the playing of the violin, and personally invented many of the techniques now essential to the playing of the instrument. His Sonata No. 3 was exquisitely played.
Handel towers over most of his contemporaries not only for the variety of his compositions, but also for their quality. One doesn’t have to listen for long to any Handel work to realise that here was one of the greatest composers of all time, and even his relatively trivial Violin Sonata in D Major revealed riches beyond the reach of most of his peers. The playing of Nadja Zwiener, with Joseph Crouch on cello and Tom Foster on harpsichord, was fabulous and earned warm applause from the large audience in Whitekirk church. Joseph Crouch also acted as the main MC for the group, and his witty introductions were almost as good as his cello playing, which was quite outstanding. He seemed to be having a wonderful time playing this lovely music and his infectious personality added to the pleasure of the evening.
The first half ended with Georg Telemann’s Sonata in F Major, for 2 violins, 2 violas and continuo (ie the forces playing in this concert), and the full complement created a warm and weighty sound which took us splendidly to the interval.
The second half began with Romanus Weichlein’s Sonata VI, another piece for four instruments and continuo. Weichlein was a Benedictine monk with a famous temper, who worked at various abbeys and convents in Austria, and this sonata was influenced by Biber’s style, reflecting the occasion when Biber and Weichlein crossed paths early in the both their careers.Biber himself appeared next, in a fascinating work, the Balletti Lamentabili, which wove a series of solemn dances round a central lament section.
The programme concluded with a trio sonata by Handel, whose 3rd movement, an extended passacaglia, was fabulously adorned by ever more elaborate violin swirlings. This magnificent central movement was capped by a final gigue and minuet, which swept us to a sprightly ending. A welcome encore by Georg Muffat, born in France of Scottish descent, who settled in Germany and carved out a career made famous by the extraordinary performance directions included in his publications of music for strings.
It was great to hear that the present members of the English Concert are preserving its fabulous heritage.