Handel & Haydn Society Concert

Today we went to a wonderful concert given by the Handel & Haydn Society. Prior to the concert there was a pre-concert reception & discussion by the conductor, Sir Roger Norrington. This was held across the street at the offices of the Handel & Haydn Society located in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Building. The staff of the H&H society provided a warm and intimate setting to introduce themselves to loyal patrons. Refreshments were wonderful and added to the elgance of the reception. Most people were very well dressed and all loved music.

Sir Roger Norrington arrived in a casual long sleeve sport shirt and sat down on the steps and talked to a crowd of about 50 people in the lobby of the building. The maestro said that he would elect to sit as he would do much standing later. He also joked that conducting is much simpler than it looks. The conductor indicated that there are only 2 period orchestras in the US; the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and one in San Francisco. The one in Boston is nearly 200 years old. He explained the balance of the orchestra, seating arrangements and overall size of the orchestra are fundamentally different than traditional moderm orchestras. Norrington also went one to say that his earlier recordings of the Beethoven symphonies from a period orchestra (London Classical Orchestra) on EMI (which I own and cherish) were highly criticized when they were first issued becauase of unusually fast tempi. He ignored the critics and over the years these have becone accepted as critically acclaimed performances.

I had a chance to speak with him directly prior to the concert and asked if the furor over the tempi had died down, and he acknowledged that they had. He further indicated that composer/conductors such as Bernstein or greats such as Karajan or Furtwangle had fundamentally different view towards these symphonies and were much slower and dramatic in their interpretation. He indicated that folklore indicates that Beethoven's metronome was likley faulty and tempo notations are notariously inaccurate. One of the characteristics of period orchestras is that they omit the vibrato which tends to meld the orchestra into a unifying tone. I also asked his opinion of Valery Gergiev, the esteemed Maestro of the Marinsky Opera and chorus and he indicated that he thought he was "old fashioned".

The concert started with Beethoven's 4th Symphony. One must look at the nature of the diminutive orchestra, its seating arrangment and indeed the nature of period instruments. Violins are seated opposite each other. Bass fiddles are on the conductor's left. Trumpets (2) without valves and elongated bells are seated to the back right next to the trombones (2). The French horn's again without valves are seated to the conductors left. The woodwinds 2 each of clarinets, bassoons amd 1 flute and 1 piccolo are seated right in back of the cellos. It is of interest to note that these period instrumenst have no "spit valves" requiring removal of tuning sections during the performance to remove condensed liquid. This was particularly dramatic for one of the trombone players. The only percussionist is a lone tympany player who played with rather bright rigid sticks that gave a rather focused percussive sound.

At any rate, back to the 4th symphony, one had to imagine that this was played as parlor music in a small venue unlike today's halls. One did not really get the impression that this was Beethoven until well into the piece. The conductor had explained that the 4th symphony was one of stark contrasts in intensity and unlike the 6th symphony which conveyed a story of the environment and its notable streams and storm so highly beloved in the 6th. The audience was thoroughly engaged and some small sector applauded between movments. This gave latecomers a chance to be seated and enjoy the performance. The piece ended with a rousing movement of the conductor's arms gesturing to the audience which was met with a rousing round of applause.

The intermission had a youth choir singing in the 2nd floor lounge as part of the H&H outreach program. These 5-7th grade performers were dressed in red shirts and black skirts or slacks and sangel from spirtuals, Handel and a Ghanese children's folk song with accompanied claps and outstreatched arms. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and charisma. Undoubtedly there were many proud parents and grandparents assembled to enjoy the brief concert. The pianist was skilled and let the young performers shine.

The 6th Symphony, one of the warhorses of the Classical repetoire was stunning in its freshness. One had to be there to understand the different texture and quality of sound that allows the viewere to glaen individual solosits with great precision. As the conducor explianed in his pre-concert lecture there is little or no vibrato used in this type of orchaestra which leads to great intensity and uniqueness to this sound. Only here can you truly hear that tonal qualities of the period bassoon sounding totally different than a modern instrument. The playing was gorgeous, very musical and refreshingly different. This pastoral symphony (the only Beethoven symphony given a name) was the forbearer of Mendelsohn or Schubert who had many of their symphony's named. The symphony was conducted with sheer beauty and elegance by Norrington. He did not use score or baton for either piece and was able to nuance great variety in dimension, intensity and color from the orchestra. There were notable solos by the bassoon, clarinet and flute players. It ended with a rousing standing ovation by a thrilled audience.

The conducor graciously signed a limite number of available CD's and programs after the performance. Alas, he is not coming back to Tanglewood this summer so we cherished this concert as one that will be very memorable.