Above: Baroque dancer Aimee Brown joined the members of Salut! Baroque for this special and entertaining concert.
Salut! Baroque’s latest concert set the conceptual, demonstrative didactic, music history and entertainment bar(re) very high.
Dance was the hero, the captain, and as the cornerstone of this event . It stepped and jumped its way into our hearts with quality accompaniment. For those in the crowd new to HIP, Baroque or Early Music concert performances, the plethora of dance forms in music is instantly noticeable.
For those who regularly attend such concerts to witness this, or maybe have studied Baroque dance forms in music theory when this concert extended that experience and knowledge, making the academic process so much more accessible.
Guest actors and soloists have often added an interesting layer of history, humour and humanity to this ensemble’s programming over the last thirty years. This time the recorders were joined by Baroque flautist Sally Walker as well as Baroque oboist Jane Downer.
However, the addition of a period dancer working in front of the musicians was an innovative master stroke of this concert’s concept. It was a next-level, ground-breaking element in Sydney performance practice as we usually see it, regardless of the focus era.
Resplendent in period costume and a variety of accessories, Aimee Brown brought the dance-form inspired music to life. Brown’s background resonates well with Salut! Baroque. Hers was a joyous, comfortable performance in front of the instrumentalists on the Verbrugghen Hall stage. Aimee is a recorder player, early dance studio operator and holder of a research Masters focussing on teaching musicians about early dance.
Co-Artistic Director Tim Blomfield responded to the emphasis on dance by once more penning substantial, detailed and illuminating programme notes, which are easily an event on their own. These notes often shed fresh light and revealing unknown relationships between the programmed composers. This concert’s Blomfield text replaced references to the specific works or composers with a detailed, candid, humorous and much needed swoop through dance styles of the time. This was a rewarding read, as we followed the journey in Baroque times of Dance and its close partner, Music.
So what musical pastiche did this concert and this interesting collaboration bring? Once more this ensemble covered the full gamut of the Baroque era. They brought us new, unknown works to us as well as new works from composers which loyal followers of this group have encountered during previous concert concepts.
For me, this meant more music from ‘other’ German composers, namely Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (his Trio Sonata No.2 in E minor from 1694 complete with three dance movements) and an exquisite, measured performance by strings of Christoph Graupner’s Le Desire (1731). I have been playing the latter on repeat since being introduced to it by John Ma and Salut! Strings.
Telemann was once more included in the tapestry, via his Ouverture-Suite in B flat major TWV 55:B13 (1725). The outer dance movements fitted in well in this programme, and the central ‘Plainte’ was gorgeously handled. Starting the concert was Jean-Féry Rebel’s 1715 dance catalogue piece, Les caractères de la danse, with its madcap sampler of some twelve dance styles to get the dance party going.
Colourful, more novel inclusions to the programme were the ensemble’s rendering of the ‘Uccellino : Polonaise’ from Graupner’s Ouverture in G major GWV 466- known as the ‘Caged Bird’. Non-German/Italian/French Baroque fare was again included by this group, with The Marvel of Peru (1755), including a vibrant Musette from this Scottish Baroque composer.
The concert also concluded with Baroque music not from a Court or familiar continent, but an anonymous Romani folk dance to give us an extra dimension during our dance invitation. The difference to strictly stylised works preceding it such as the ballet music of Lully or dance inserted into opera (as in the nicely gestured performance of exceprts from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen) being so expertly contrasted here.
We look forward to the nest Salut! Baroque concert on June 14. With the engaging title of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ it will be a journey away from the usual, celebrated Courts and into the heart of Bohemia. Salut! Baroque promises to once again sing, dance and show us a new side to the kaleidoscopic Baroque.
This concert’s instrumental ensemble featured: Sally Melhuish (recorder), Alana Blackburn (recorder), Sally Walker (Baroque flute), Jane Downer (Baroque oboe), John Ma (Baroque violin), Jared Adams (Baroque violin), Brad Tham (Baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (Bass Violin), George Wills (Baroque guitar/ theorbo), William Naayen (percussion) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).
