Review of Academy of Ancient Music presenting Italian Legacies: Geminiani and his English Contemporaries
In a written introduction to their Wednesday evening performance James McMunn, their Chief Executive, recognised in AAM’s programme of music a multiculturalism of which he himself had been part when recently receiving British Citizenship.
English multiculturalism was not a new phenomenon. The first Hanoverian monarch of his line, King George 1, had a keen interest in continental culture and during his reign brought many Italian musicians to his court, all of whom appealed and contributed to a lively and aspiring middle class England that had already been a cultural melting pot for centuries.
AAM’s Director of the evening’s concert, the celebrated violinist Bojan Čičić, had made prominent in this programme (more than a year in the making) composer Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) who had studied with Corelli in Rome and for whom no less a figure than Handel had been an accompanist at court.
Like Handel himself Geminiani was a huge influence on English music He was apparently a somewhat wayward, innovative and rather colourful figure, perfectly suited to the temper of the times, continuing the Italian flair evident in the early Handel and his operas, and adding complexity to the baroque, the ‘ancient’ music of the kind AAM had been established, as in this concert, to showcase.
The ensemble began with an overture by Thomas Arne (1710-1778 - G major No. 3), in the Italian style and one of a set of eight, beginning with a confident, strident statement, followed by a slow movement, and concluding with a pleasing up-tempo minuet.
Next on the menu, came the concerto No. 1 in D major by a composer with the unlikely name of Richard Mudge (1718-1763). His concerto however (unlike his name) was anything but uninspiring, featuring a prominent role for the trumpet throughout. This would not have been the valve trumpet but its predecessor, which Robert Vanryne (playing gloriously in this performance) said in a recent broadcast was an instrument that added ‘a golden touch to everything.’
Mudge’s concerto was followed with a Concerto Grosso of Geminiani’s, op. 7 No 3 in C major evoking some fine playing by the ensemble, and in turn followed to the interval by Thomas Linley’s music for Sheridan’s production of The Tempest (1777), reflecting the popularity of Shakespeare mid-century and more or less contemporary with Dr Johnson’s edition of the Works in 1765.
Linley, a brilliant violinist, had his life tragically cut short in his early twenties by a boating accident. The music he wrote for the play was appropriately addressed by AAM’s approach, from the powerful opening of the storm to their accompanying rendition of the songs, beautifully and sensitively delivered by celebrated soprano Anna Devin who took the part of Ariel in Linley’s text, and accompanied by four accomplished singers as Chorus, Danii O’Neill (Soprano), Ruth Kiang (Alto), Edmund Hastings (Tenor) and Christopher Webb (Bass).
Anna, who has a truly fabulous voice, communicated Linley’s ravishing music with her equally ravishing technique, evident in particular lines, such as ‘I’ll climb the mountains, plunge the deep’, ‘not with ill will but merrily’, ‘Each one tripping on his toe’, and in a truly wonderful performance of ‘Come unto these yellow sands’ with the amazing virtuoso oboist, Leo Duarte as accompanist.
The second half of the evening’s programme began with the Overture from Peleus and Thetis by William Boyce (1711-1779) who early in his career wrote music for the theatre of which this was an example dating from mid-century. It is in the Italian style of three movements, fast-slow-fast, as in the Overture by Thomas Arne which had begun the evening’s proceedings. The second movement Largo evolved into a third movement Gavotte with a pleasing catchy tune.
Next it was back to Thomas Linley and his Violin Concerto in F major with some wonderfully virtuosic playing by Bojan Čičić. Finally came another arrangement, La Tempesta (nothing to do with Shakespeare this time), a dramatic secular cantata in four sections with operatic arias and recitatives by Pietro Metastasio. The music was by J.C.Bach who took up residence in England in 1762 and met the child Mozart in the latter’s London tour, going on to be hugely influential subsequently on the great composer’s symphonies.
La Tempesta is very much of its time, reflecting the 18th Century’s interest in the natural world, its exploration of what sort of things in nature produce fear such as storms (Burke’s 1757 Essay on the Sublime and the Beautiful is contemporary), and in the advancement of science in its understanding of such phenomena as lightning and electricity. Anna Devin’s performance of this extraordinary and demanding work was spellbinding.
In another of AAM’s thoroughly enjoyable evenings, the superb band with their matchless knowledge of historical context captivatingly demonstrated how multi-culturalism, and prominently within it the Italian tradition, had left a rich legacy for the transformation of English music.
JOHN GILROY
