Irish Baroque Orchestra

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 22/8/24

Peter Whelan, director/harpsichord

Peter Whelan and his ‘Time -Travelling Orchestra’ set this concert in Dublin 1742.  Handel is in town, maybe in the audience, restoring his career after the success of his Messiah premiere, and everyone has flocked to hear Mr Charles, the Hungarian music impresario deliver a concert of popular music – including cheekily an arrangement of Handel’s Water Music – and show off the newest instruments.

Peter Whelan, former bassoonist of the  Scottish Chamber Orchestra, is our genial host for this programme which he has compiled from contemporary newspaper reports and other research.  The concert begins with Handel’s overture to ‘Il Pastor Fido’, the natural horns  played by Anneka Scott and Martin Lawrence providing the orchestra’s distinctive sound in the opening march  Their virtuosity is matched by the string players, standing to play on gut-stringed instruments.

Hasse’s ‘Concerto in D’ lets the other wind players come into their own.  The chalumeau  - a tiny wooden instrument with a surprising low pitch - was a novelty introduced by Mr Charles, and Nicola Bond conjures marvels from it, in conjunction with bassoonist, Carlos Christabel and oboist, Agnes Galssne, in four delightful movements full of harmonies, echoing melodies, delicate ornamentation and burbling runs.  

Hasse, Peter Whelan tells us, also wrote a short minuet for one of Dublin’s famous ballerinas, Signora Barberini, whose “shockingly sprightly” dances in leopard-skin costume made her a sensation. Then horn player Anneke Scott and flautist Miriam Kaczor join forces for the London music publisher, Walshe’s arrangement of Handel’s  ‘Va Tacito’ from ‘Julius Caesar.’  In this famous hunting aria the horn obbligato weaves round the alto voice.  Walsh’s arrangement substitutes the flute for the voice, which provides an interesting different take on the familiar setting.  The trills and other elaborations from both players become more complicated as the work progresses, culminating in a cadenza duet which has the audience gasping.

The horn players standing at the side door start the second half with a short horn duet by Mr Charles before the fascinating ‘Concerto Grosso’ by Geminiani, in which the string sections get their chance to show off.  Leader Michael Gurevich, stunning in displays of rapid virtuosity, plays duets in turn with the leaders of the other sections. Sarah McMahon makes light work of Bocchi’s ‘Cello Sonata no 10’ with able support from fellow cellist Samuel Ng and lutenist Pablo Fitzgerald. In Lully’s stirring ‘Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs,’  the first Janissary music introduced to Dublin, the clashing of bows on strings replaces the usual percussion.

Handel’s ‘Water Music’ ends the concert. The horns, a new instrument used by Handel at its first performance because they resonated across the Thames, sound just as good  indoors. Hearing this arrangement of the first movement of the Suite No 1 on Radio 3 encouraged me to buy the IBO’s recording. Whelan takes it at a fair pace, and the players respond with alacrity, bouncing through the syncopation. Perhaps too fast for some listeners, but decidedly different, and the small forces keep the textures transparent, so that the passages for the other winds and for the strings and lute are heard with complete clarity. The first clarinet in Dublin is added to the mix in the Overture and Hornpipe from the Second Suite which follows. Whoops and bravos ring out at the end of this brilliant and entertaining concert.

Peter Whelan’s promotion of the popular baroque music of Dublin is, of course, based on thorough and ongoing research, and on the dedication of his brilliant musicians. The IBO  have twice presented operas by Vivaldi at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, in collaboration with Irish National Opera and the Royal Opera, ‘Bajazet’ in 2022 and ‘L’Olimpiade’ earlier this year. A thought, perhaps for the reopening of the King’s Theatre at EIF 2025?    

Photo credit: Marco Borggreve