Concerts of Creative Baroque & Late Romantic Music

Sunday night will host a classical event ready to both amaze and amuse. Starting at 9 pm at the Teatro della Pergola is a contemporary rendition of a musical treatise that strays from the familiar path of chamber music.  Monday evening brings famous Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev in a virtuoso program of all-Russian music.

Sun. March 5: Rendition of Hubert Le Blanc’s Défense Treatise. Teatro della Pergola. 9 pm.

The colorful concert to be performed is Hubert Le Blanc’s Défense de la basse de viole contre les entreprises du violon et les prétentions du violoncelle. Le Blanc was a renaissance man; in his life he became a doctor of law, an abbé, and is remembered most for his capabilities on the viol. His personality was eccentric and his prose are purple, yet his work provides eyewitness insight into the world of 18th century musical life.

This performance is unlike the classical concerts typically hosted by Amici della Musica. While the program consists of a blend of French and Italian composers, each score serves as the backdrop for the narrative that Le Blanc wrote. This story is accented with ironic tones, chivalric romance, and questionably heroic deeds, yet ultimately it serves as a defense for the viol, an instrument that was falling out of fashion during his era.

Le Blanc may not have composed the music, but his understanding of the Baroque genre shines through the selected works chosen to assemble this concert-driven treatise. Jean-Baptiste Forqueray and Maran Marais lend their elegantly refined French styles to support the rivalry between French and Italian music. Francesco Geminiani and Antonio Vivaldi stand in the corner of the Italians, offering more playfully exuberant songs in which the Italian style finds definition.   

The entire performance is a collision of brightly Baroque music and narrative comedy. Bringing to life this unique experience is an established quintet. Founder of the Trio di Parma, cellist Enrico Bronzi will play alongside the brothers Vittorio and Lorenzo Ghielmi, on the viol and harpsichord respectively. On lute is Luca Pianca, co-founder of Il Giardino Armonico, while Luciano Bertoli lends his voice as the narrator. The five have collaborated among themselves in the past, so the concert will be as fine-tuned as it is fun for all.

Monday, March 6:  Piano recital by Mikhail Pletnev.  Teatro della Pergola.  9 pm.

Recipient of the gold medal at the 1978 International Tchaikovsky competition, Pletnev is also the conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, which he also founded as well as a composer of a concerto which was debuted by Yuri Bashmet.  He has transcribed music by Tchaikovsky and arranged a Beethoven violin concerto for the clarinet.

The program is entirely dedicated to Sergei Rachmaninov. It will open with Morceaux de fantaisie op.3, in which the dreamlike and explosive Prelude in C-sharp minor resides, followed by Barcarolle Op.10 No.3. The complexity intensifies when the astounding Prelude op.23: n.2 begins with a resounding clarity. The harmonic rhythm of this score contrasts a thunderous ostinato from the left hand with a speedy melodic line from the right.       

Stated as a personal favorite of his preludes, the Rachmaninov concert continues with the Prelude op. 32 and concludes with the lesser known Sonata n.1 op. 28. The Sonata was originally inspired by Goethe’s tragic play Faust, however; years of revisions left the composition something to be desired. Pletnev will reintroduce this piece to the audience with his typical fervor to let the audience be the judge of this historically unpopular song.

Rachmaninov’s complex textures are defined by their clarity, ensuring that every note rings as intended. His tone is full of heart, allowing emotions to pour from the tips of his fingers into the keys he strikes. Being a top pianist of his era, his compositions remain to be interpreted by those both practiced and truly gifted in the art.  (carson cecil)