J. S. Bach: Organ Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 525 (arr. Florilegium) (1727)

Antonio Vivaldi: Cello Sonata in B-Flat Major (1740)


C. P. E. Bach: Trio Sonata in G Major
 (1731)

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in D Major (1725)

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G. P. Telemann: Paris Quartet in E Minor (1738)

J.H. D’Anglebert: Prelude in D minor (before 1691)


Jean-Féry Rebel: Caracters de la Danse (1715)

Performers:
Ashley Solomen, director and baroque flute
Bojan Čičič, baroque violin
Jennifer Morsches, baroque cello
Terence Charlston, harpsichord

The Frick Collection’s current exhibition about French painter Charles Coypel (1694 – 1752) celebrates his designs for tapestries that depict the adventures of Don Quixote. The show’s splendid pieces are a reminder that Quixote was, and remains, one of literature’s most memorable characters. His chimeric adventures, which transpired in a misty realm between reality and fantasy, shamelessly embrace the sort of escapism to which many a weary soul can only aspire. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that New York’s most intrepid music lovers also ventured to The Frick Collection, headlong into a snowstorm, in search of their own sort of fantasy.  Once there, they reaped the rewards of their journey in the form of an innovative and lively performance by Florilegium, one of the U.K.’s most accomplished ensembles specialising in Baroque music. The transporting, lush, interior of the Frick’s Music Hall made the evening all the more cosy and inviting. All told, somewhere between the anticipatory squeak of wet rain boots and the nourishing hum of the evening’s final notes, a golden interval had passed, erasing all memory of the cold and grey winter evening.

The sold-out event featured masterful late-Baroque music, composed between 1715 and 1738, by the likes of Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann. (Interestingly, Coypel also worked on his tapestry designs from 1714 – 1734.) All of the works share a common bond in that they teeter, stylistically and historically, somewhere in the beautiful haze between the Baroque and Classical periods of music. They sigh under the introspective weight of the Baroque influence and soar from the spiralling intellect that would soon become associated with the Classical period. As such, they are reminders that change was not always as neat and precise as the narratives constructed by history books, but instead required some adventurous experimentation and the courage to dream of something not yet known. The spirit of Don Quixote lives on, indeed.

Florilegium’s particular blend of wind and string instruments captured the earnest, contemplative, sometimes mischievous, and wonderfully eclectic mood of the works they performed. The concert opened with J. S. Bach’s Organ Trio Sonata in G Major (1727), arranged by Florilegium. Here, the group’s ingenious talent for re-interpreting the essence of a composition came to the fore. Though Bach’s original piece was written for organs (in E-Flat major), the group approached the piece using a Baroque Cello, played by Jennifer Morsches, a Harpsichord, played by Terence Charlston, a baroque flute, played by the group’s director Ashley Solomen, and a baroque violin, played by Bojan Čičič. The cello and harpsichord provided a crisp, sound voice of reason against the melodious and light-hearted conversation between the flute and violin: think Sancho Panza – Quixote’s long-suffering and sensible side-kick – trying (unsuccessfully) to talk Don Quixote out of charging at dragons, that are in fact really just Windmills.

Discernible in Florilegium’s performance of this sonata, as well as the other pieces included in the concert, is a nuanced interpretation that reveals to the listener a conversation full of digressions, tangents, shared whispers, agreements, and revelations. What was once, for example, a girthy statement rendered by pipe organs, becomes a well-articulated dialogue that intrigues the listener with pleasing harmonies and a sense of lightness that foretells the breathy trill characteristic of Mozart. The violin and flute almost gossip their way through the Allegro (third movement). At times, the flute assumes a glockenspiel-like quality that amuses, but is also at odds with a darker undertone that looms beneath the cello’s heavier musings. Ultimately, the four voices within the quartet do not always agree, but they are able to speak their minds harmoniously.

The inclusion of Vivaldi’s Cello Sonata in B-Flat Major (1740) in the evening’s performance exemplifies the transitional nature embodied by Florilegium’s selections for the concert. The piece demands a dexterous and limber navigation of the cello that is daunting to watch, though Morsches delivered an enthralling solo performance. The composition, written on the cusp of the conventional border between the Baroque and Classical styles of music, is sparse in comparison to the rich blend of harmonies in Bach’s Organ Trio. As a result, the machinations required to navigate Vivaldi’s rapid runs of notes are laid bare against the nature of the baroque instrument; the labour of the performance belies the tone of the piece. The deep, penetrating voice of the cello yields some of its heft in exchange for a work that strives toward, but is unable to fully achieve, the lightness, balance, control, and restraint it so desperately wants to convey. Witnessing the clash of ideas and mediums dictated by Vivaldi’s Cello Sonata is reminiscent of learning about the difference between the beautiful but imaginary Dulcinea that enchanted Don Quixotie’s dreams, and the real Dulcinea – the earthy Aldonza. However, Vivaldi’s piece, more so than being uncomely, perhaps reveals an ambitious dream that dares to challenge the period’s formal ideas of beauty.

After completing a masterful performance, Florilegium acquiesced to the crowd’s calls for an encore with their interpretation of a Bolivian folk melody, translated and arranged through the lens of the Baroque. The quartet (whose fascinating work with seventeenth and eighteenth-century music written and collected by Jesuit priests living in Bolivia deserves its own review) once again entranced the audience with another blend of reality and artistry, wit and whimsy.  After the musicians exited the stage, the crowd continued to applaud, unwilling to play Sancho Panza to the four Quixotes.

Florilegium’s performance at the Frick Collection took place on March 1, 2015.

Coypel’s Don Quixote Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France is on view February 25, 2015 to May 17, 2015.  For more information, see: http://www.frick.org//exhibitions/don_quixote