Matthew Brown reviews Carolina Baroque

Baroque and beyond: buffet style

By Matthew Michael Brown

for Salisbury Post

Given that downtown Salisbury was rollicking a block over due to the Downtown Night Out event, a wonderful audience gathered in the intimate chapel of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Friday evening for Carolina Baroque's final concert of the season.

Led by founder and music director Dale Higbee, the concert offered up a splendid global buffet of music from England, France, Germany and Austria. With Higbee playing baroque recorder, the concert also featured soprano Teresa Radomski, violinists John Pruett and Susan Perkins, violist Marian Wilson, gambist Holly Maurer, and harpsichordist Susan Bates—all familiar faces to Carolina Baroque supporters.

The concert began with John Mundy's arrangement of "Robin" for recorder, two violins and viola da gamba from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. This selection was a curious beginning, yet seemed fitting as an appetizer of the main course yet to come.

The concert continued with a charming bouquet of consort music by John Dowland. All of the musicians were so convincing in their buoyant dance rhythms that it literally made me feel as if I was taken back in time to a Tudor banquet hall.

Between the larger works on the program, the audience was inspired by the sensitive and highly musical playing of harpsichordist Susan Bates. Her perfectly paced and stylized interpretation of Sweelinck's variations on the secular tune Mein junges Leben hat ein End was a highlight of the entire concert. Her wise choice of switching to the harpsichord's lute stop was quite effective in evoking the music's lamenting character in the final phrase.

Following the Sweelinck, veteran Carolina Baroque performer Teresa Radomski offered the well-known aria ''Mein gl ubiges Herze'' from Johann Sebastian's Bach's Cantata Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt. Both Bates and gambist Holly Maurer provided fine support underneath the rather difficult leaping tune of the aria.

The first half ended with Johann Christian Bach's Quartet in F major, Op. 8, No. 4, a quirky work clearly inspired by the compositions of Mozart's formative years.

Following the 15 minute intermission, the concert featured Radomski again in Bach's cantata Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott. Her flawless German diction combined with her communicative skill as a performer truly brought this music to another level. This was particularly evident in the focus she exuded during the outside swarm of thunderous motorcycles traveling down Innes Street.

Following the Bach, the audience was treated to a splendid reading of Jean-Phillippe Rameau's isolated harpsichord work, 'La Dauphine'. Composed in a completely different style from the Sweelinck, it was in this piece that Bates' skill as a virtuoso in complete control of her instrument was showcased. The clarity achieved in the heroic scalar passages left the audience completely mesmerized.

Closing the concert was a noble performance of scenes from Handel's opera, Amadigi di Gaula. First performed in London in 1715, the opera according to Higbee's notes, "puts much emphasis on magic and spectacle."

Handel's operas are rarely heard due to their immense production costs and large casts involved. Higbee informed the audience that this would be a "scaled down Salisbury version" which in the end did not disappoint.

Radomski, in the role of Melissa, delivered a powerful performance of two arias, both with preceding recitative. The strings and continuo provided a balanced accompaniment to her voice which is so perfect for this repertoire. In both arias, Radomski delivered clean coloratura and gracious ornamentation on the da capo returns. Although Handel called for trumpet in the accompaniment, Higbee substituted his recorder for the part which didn't threaten the music at all. In fact, it was an intelligent substitute for this particular ensemble and venue.

Carolina Baroque is to be commended for this concert and for its continued offerings to the Salisbury community and beyond. According to the program, Higbee has planned for an exciting season next year with concerts titled, "Handel and Salisbury" and "Couperin and Paris."

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Matthew Michael Brown is Director of Music at First United Methodist Church of Salisbury.