Lammermuir Festival: Inspiring Bach with the Marian Consort and Spiritato
St Mary’s Church, Haddington - 13/09/22
Trumpets and Drums
Trumpets and drums, who doesn’t like them? The most exciting sounds from the baroque period of music come from these two instruments. I have a particular love for the baroque trumpet, with memories of wonderful concerts – ‘The Trumpet shall sound’ (Messiah in Paris with Minkowski)), ‘Grosses Herr’ (Christmas Oratorio in Salzburg), B Minor Mass (Cremona with Pinnock) and ‘King Arthur’ (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and Albert Hall also with Pinnock). I mention these memories because all of them were played on “baroque trumpets”, natural trumpets with small venting holes and special small mouthpieces, extras which allowed the trumpet to be more consistent and exactly in tune.
In this concert in St Mary’s Church, Haddington, at the Lammermuir Festival, the group Spiritato made a point of playing with pure natural trumpets, with larger mouthpieces and no venting holes. This meant that, for much of the concert, the trumpet playing was, well, a bit wonky (that’s a technical term used by singers!). This was a deliberate choice on the part of the group, outlined in the otherwise not very helpful programme notes, and I am afraid, for this listener, it was a wrong choice. Everything else about the performance was excellent and very precise, with splendid singing, and superb playing from the other members of the ensemble, but the trumpets were (and this is no criticism of the players) wayward. The sound was often thrilling but, for me, too inaccurate.
In fact, it took a while for the concert to spark into life, as for quite a lot of the first half, I felt the balance between the singers of the Marian Consort and the instrumentalists was awry. The decision to have the performers in the crossing of the church meant that the sound, especially of the singers, seemed to go upwards rather than out to the audience. This balance improved considerably as the concert progressed, and, by the second half, it seemed to have sorted itself out.
The idea of the concert was to show the impressive influences on Johann Sebastian Bach from Pachelbel, Knüpfer, Buxtehude and Johann Christoph Bach (JSB’s uncle), and we were introduced to some quite unusual and little known music. Among the pieces chosen was the cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ (Christ lay in death’s bonds) in two settings, one by Pachelbel (famous for his Canon) and one by J S Bach. It was fascinating to hear how differently the mature Pachelbel set the words compared with the youthful Bach, but, as often in these comparisons, the true genius of Bach shone through, eclipsing the older composer’s slightly pedestrian setting.
The concert began with Pachelbel’s cantata ‘Gott sei uns gnädig’ (God be merciful to us), which was the piece in which the balance between singers and instruments was most awry. With only three singers to a part, there was a danger of the voices being swamped, and this didn’t augur well for the rest of the evening.
Fortunately, the next piece, by J C Bach, ‘Ach, das ich Wassers gnug hätte’ (Oh that I had water enough in my head for tears, that I could bewail my sin, night and day) was for solo countertenor and ensemble, and Rory McCleery, director and founder of the Marian Consort (and Scottish to boot!) had no problem being heard, and indeed sang with beautiful tone and lovely expression. This was a gorgeous piece, transcending the somewhat gloomy sentiment of the words, and was, for me, the vocal high point of the evening.
After the interval, which gave the large audience a chance to stretch their legs, we were treated to three widely contrasting pieces, beginning with the J S Bach cantata mentioned above. This was a very early Easter cantata, setting Martin Luther’s fiery hymn, and shows the young Bach’s ability to paint words with music. At one point, the words say that Jesus has taken away from Death all his power, leaving Nothing but his outward form. At the word ‘Nichts’ (nothing), the music suddenly stops, the violins musically present the outline of the cross, and, in an instant, Death has lost his sting. It’s an incredibly dramatic moment, and the musicians carried it off with aplomb. In verse five, sung in unison by the consort basses, the melody wends its way along until, suddenly, on the word ‘Würger’ (Strangler), the basses leap up to an unexpected high note. The strangler, Death, can harm us no more, and the voices duly calm themselves.
As a complete contrast, Spiritato next played a beautiful Sonata by Buxtehude for violin, viola da gamba and continuo, whose sensuous lines and mingling tones were soothing and thrilling in equal measure. There was splendid playing by the group’s director, Kinga Ujszászi (violin), and Jacob Garside (gamba).
The final work was ‘Es erhub sich ein Streit im Himmel’ (There was a war in Heaven) by Johann Christoph Bach, a wonderfully descriptive piece with big roles for trumpets and drums, along with the full vocal ensemble, as the war between Michael and the Angels against the Dragon of Satan was fought out before our ears! It seemed that the trumpets were more accurate by now, and there was a formidable fight for mastery between them and the singers. They were united at last in sending Satan to his doom – he who challenged God was cast down!
This was an exciting end to a concert which had started a little warily, but which triumphed mightily in the end. We were sent out into the East Lothian night with trumpets and drums ringing splendidly!
