London Concertante Chamber Ensemble: Improvisation, Baroque and Beyond

T he London Concertante Chamber Ensemble delivered a superb performance last night at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

• Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
  
• Vivaldi - Concerto for Two Cellos
  
• Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 6
  
• Piazzolla - Milonga del angel
  
• Telemann - Viola Concerto
  
• Bach - Concerto for Violin, Flute & Harpsichord in A minor BWV 1044

T he ensemble for the BWV 1044 last night was 3 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, 1 double bass, and harpsichord. David Gordon’s renderings of the cadenzas for harpsichord in the Alla breve were amazingly organ-like, and the reverberous acoustics of the chancel of St. Martin-in-the-Fields added constructively to this impression.

T he improvisational ‘chorale’-like material in BWV 1044 is not so much reverential as fantastical. The orchestral, organ-like quality to the cadenzas and ritornelli is simply devastating to hear. It has been long-established that sections in this piece are borrowed from Bach’s BWV 894 and also some ‘borrowings’ from Telemann or others. In that regard, it is almost as though Bach—and here David Gordon and collaborators—were ritually invoking the Divine and not at all concerned with ‘originality’.

T he window by Iranian-born artist Shirazeh Houshiary was commissioned in 2008 as part of a renewal project at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The stainless steel ‘cames’ are shot-peened natural raw finish and configured in a Cross shape, and the central ellipse resembles an astronomical ‘globular cluster’ of stars with the grid of cames indicating a gravitational ‘warping’ of time and space in the neighborhood of the cluster, calling into question the nature of ‘creation’ and human experience. The window is symbolically a well-suited backdrop, I think, for the expansive atmospherics provided by London Concertante Chamber Ensemble.


S o… unbridled improvisations within Baroque pieces, profuse improvisations in Piazzolla honoring a different, humanistic god: illuminating to hear these side-by-side in the same program. A wonderful evening!

• Adam Summerhayes, Fenella Humphreys, Roger Huckle (violin)
  
• Matthew Quenby, Nick Howson, Robert Smissen (viola)
  
• Chris Grist, Julia Graham (cello)
  
• Ben Griffiths (double bass)
  
• David Gordon (harpsichord)
  
• Julian Sperry (flute)

• London Concertante Chamber Ensemble website
  
• London Concertante. Piazzolla and Beyond. (Harmonia Mundi, 2009.)
  
• London Concertante. Gypsy Strings. (Chandos, 2008.)
  
• Schulenberg D. The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach. 2e. Routledge, 2006.
  
• Schulenberg D, ed. Bach Perspectives, Vol. 4. Univ Nebraska, 1999.
  
• St. Martin-in-the-Fields website

    [50-sec clip, London Concertante Chamber Ensemble, Astor Piazzolla, Milonga del ángel (track 2), 2009, 1.1MB MP3]