Dunedin Consort: Leipzig 300 music by Bach and Telemann

Queen’s Hall - 08/02/24

John Butt, director and harpsichord | Julia Doyle, soprano | Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano | Nicholas Mulroy, tenor | Matthew Brook, baritone | John Crockatt, viola

“Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt” (just as the rain and snow fall from heaven) is the prescient opening of tonight’s first cantata, although a nasty night of sleet has not deterred the sizeable audience in the Queen’s Hall. The Dunedin Consort’s ‘Leipzig 300’ commemorates Bach’s acceptance of the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig in late 2023, and the other composers who competed with him. Bach was initially placed third but was confirmed in the job when Telemann preferred Hamburg and Graupner had to stay on at Darmstadt. 

The main part of the concert consists of three cantatas which Bach wrote, almost exactly 300 years ago, in his first months at Leipzig. First we hear two orchestral works from his competitors.  Christophe Graupner (1683-1760) was a prolific composer, and the orchestra with John Butt conducting play one of his eighty-five Suites, the ‘Ouverture in E flat Major.’  Six higher string players stand to play on the left of the stage, with a cello and violone (which looks like a small double-bass) at the other side behind Catriona McDermid on bassoon.  She plays a drone-like accompaniment to the strings in the first part of the suite, which is in seven movements. The music is sprightly and receives as good a performance as one could wish for. There are a few interesting eccentricities - an extended Trio for pizzicato strings in the minuet, and the final movement, named by the composer, ‘L’inesporabilita’ (Implacability) which balances a series of slow and solemn “questions” with overexuberant flighty “replies” and brings the suite to a witty close. But I doubt if many in the audience will be looking out Graupner’s collected works!

Telemann’s ‘Viola Concerto in G Major’ is in a different class altogether. Written between 1716 and 1721, it is the first ever concerto for solo viola, and uses a four movement structure. Most importantly it’s a lovely piece, which receives an outstanding performance by John Crockatt.  He’s ably backed by three other violas, four violins, the cello and violone and John Butt on harpsichord.  The tempos of the movements are, as expected, slow, fast, slow, very fast, but each seems to show off different features of the instrument and this concerto is obviously written by someone who loves the sounds of the viola. In the largo first movement, the soloist picks up the slow melody from the other strings, echoing them on the instrument’s lower register and adding ornamentation. The syncopated allegro is almost jazzy in its off-beat alternating of the phrases and judging from the musicians’ expressions is clearly fun to play. The andante third movement is in the minor key and the viola plays a melancholy air with sparser accompaniment, before the finale returns us to the jollity of the major key, with virtuosic elaborations of its spirited theme by the soloist.  Played here on original instruments by baroque specialists, it gets the finest of showcases, but with its wit and often surprisingly modern effects, it’s by no means a museum piece.

The first half ends with Bach’s Cantata BMV 18, which begins with the snow and the rain, and which Bach rewrote early in 1724 from his original 1713 version, adding two recorders to the unusual setting for four violas, cello, violone, pipe organ and harpsichord. The first part of the work alternates recitatives for the baritone, Matthew Brook, and the tenor, Nicholas Mulroy. The text by Neumeister is based on Isaiah, a prayer by Martin Luther and an old chorale, and here, and in all the cantatas sung tonight, the German vernacular is vivid, often with onomatopoeic qualities.  Among the singers’ strengths are the ability to relish these words and communicate their emotions – which can include humour – to the audience.  Following the violas’ wintry introduction, Matthew Brook’s recitative is accompanied by harpsichord, and then the recorders join the full band for Nicholas Mulroy. Their further recitatives are interrupted by the soprano, Julia Doyle, singing one line of Luther’s prayer, followed by the other three soloists joining in the refrain, ”Oh hear us dear Lord God.” There is much denunciation not only of Satan but of Turks and Papists in the recitatives until the more consolatory sentiments of Julia Doyle’s aria accompanied by recorders and violas. The soprano, who has considerable experience in baroque roles, is clear and confident leading the earlier choruses, but is less incisive in her aria.  The theme of the cantata is the importance of the word of God and the final chorale sums this up.

After the interval, the upper strings in the slightly expanded orchestra are seated, and two oboes d’amorejoin the ensemble.  Bach’s Cantata BWV 81 ’Jesus schläft, was sol ich hoffnen?’ is a dramatic cantata, based on the story of Jesus falling asleep on a fishing boat on Galilee, and waking to calm the waves and his terrified apostles. Mezzo Helen Charlston’s opening aria reflects an apostle’s fear when he sees that Jesus is asleep, then Nicholas Mulroy’s recitative and aria speaks of his distress and fear of a “lamentable end”.  Finally Matthew Brook sings Jesus’s words chastising “you people of little faith” and then a declamatory aria with the repeated command, “Schweig, aufgeturmtes Meer!” (Be silent towering sea). The longer chorale reassures us that “though sin and hell terrify, Jesus will protect us.” The orchestration of this cantata represents the development of the storm, and the inward and outward turbulence suffered by those on the boat. Helen Charlston, who impressed on her appearance with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Bach’s B Minor Mass in October, uses her distinctive mezzo to effect in the sustained low notes of her slow aria, sung against the relatively calm waters suggested by two recorders and lower strings.  Nicholas Mulroy has a harder time in his recitative and demanding coloratura aria, with the ferocious strings threatening to overpower his voice.  Matthew Brook fares better in his declamatory arioso and aria, singing with warmth as well as power, as the orchestral storm subsides.

He obviously enjoys his solo outing in the next work, the Telemann Cantata TWV 7:20, ‘Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt’ (make a joyful noise unto the Lord). In this possible precursor to Handel’s ‘The Trumpet shall sound’, and ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’, the natural trumpet played by Paul Sharp blazes out in orchestral interludes and provides an exciting obbligato around the vocal line. In the final ‘Allelujah’, the strings double the baritone part while the trumpet’s higher notes ornament the melody.

The last work, Cantata BWV 181 begins with the wonderful words “Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister’ (scatterbrained frivolous people), and the text, with “its spiky disjointed melody” as one critic put it, is sung with panache by Matthew Brook.  Helen Charlston’s long recitative uses biblical imagery to describe unfrivolous people who have ‘hearts of stone’.  Her eye contact here is impressive, as she tells these stories in the best lieder fashion.  Nicholas Mulroy negotiates with ease his aria’s quick runs alternating with long notes, his voice intertwining with the solo violin obbligato – a modern addition to the score. The cantata ends not with a chorale but with an extended chorus, accompanied by full orchestra including the trumpet, bringing the concert to a joyous conclusion.

John Butt, as ever, controls what happens on stage with quiet precision. We owe a great deal to his scholarship and practical musicianship which so vividly brings the performances of the past to life.