by Marvin J. Ward

Boston, MA, 1 March 2009.  British oboist and conductor Paul Goodwin made his début with the Handel and Haydn Society in a pair of concerts this weekend (Friday evening and Sunday afternoon; I attended the latter) entitled “Baroque Grand Tour.”  The concept was to program works that demonstrated musical influences from countries other than that of their composers’ origin, especially those visited by English travelers: France and Italy, and all had a theatrical or dramatic aspect of one sort or another, thus simultaneously offering another type of connection.

The opener was François Couperin’s (1668-1733) Concert dans le goût Théâtral, performed in a recent reconstruction by Peter Holman for full orchestra from the trio sonata score for unspecified instruments published in Les Goûts-Réunis ou Nouveux Concerts (1724).  Couperin is primarily known on these shores as a composer of harpsichord music, but he also wrote a fair number of chamber and orchestral works, Les Nations (1726) being the most well-known.  Many were not published as such, however, but rather only in reductions for domestic music-making.  This is a typical suite of airs and dances with the standard alternation between slow and fast ones, but shows some limited influence of the Italian style within the French form.  It includes an “Air de bacchantes,” characters we also met later, in the Purcell work that followed the intermission.  It was brilliantly rendered by a 21-piece orchestra including harpsichord (centered on the stage throughout, tail pointing to the audience, lid removed) continuo supplied by Michael Sponseller.

He also provided the solo organ accompaniment for the next piece, Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) brief Funeral Sentences for the burial of Queen Mary in 1694, using texts from the Book of Common Prayer, and likewise rarely heard on this side of the Atlantic.  This was a step backwards in time as well as a switch to the religious context for a sparse, starkly dramatic display of the power and effect that the human voice is capable of.  The chorus of 8, 2 singers for each part, lined up on the front of the stage, women to the conductor's left, men to his right, consisted of: sopranos Susan Consoli and Teresa Walkin, altos Susan Byers Paxson and Susan Trout, tenors Charles Blandy and Ryan Turner, and basses Paul Guttry and Donald Wilkinson.  Only the altos had no solo parts in either of the works in which the chorus appeared.  All acquitted themselves magnificently in conveying this work’s serious tone.

Concluding the 1st half was J.S. Bach’s (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G, S. 1048 (1721), in a version slightly different from the one we are accustomed to hearing, with 3 oboes, including a tenor one, and a bassoon added in the 1st 2 movements, to create a 15-piece orchestra, including the harpsichord.  The violinists and violists stood behind the cellos on the left side, with the woodwinds on the right.  The whole was played at a sprightly tempo, much faster than we are accustomed to, especially in the 2nd movement.  This work shows a heavy influence of the Italian style, and in this case the 3-movement structure as well,  with a solo for the concertmaster, finely executed by Daniel Stepner, that transitioned into the strings-only 3rd movement, which Bach recycled as the Sinfonia for his Cantata No. 174, as Goodwin told the audience.

The entire 2nd half was devoted to “The Masque” from Purcell’s Dioclesian, just as it occupied the bulk of the final act of the 1690 semi-opera, his 1st.  Two trumpets, a timpanist, and a theorbo were added to the orchestra for a total of 24 including the harpsichord.  The work shows the influence of both the Italian and French styles.  The members of the chorus moved to various positions closer to stage center for their solos, duets, and trios, and while there was no staging, they did some limited amounts of acting, which injected some dramatic life, including some occasional humor, into what could have otherwise been lifeless delivery, their vocal abilities notwithstanding.  It became more the entertainment that it was written to be as a result.  Catherine Liddell supplied lovely theorbo and Guy Fishman lovely cello support for one of Ryan Turner’s airs.

The whole made for a creative, well-planned, balanced, and beautifully presented offering.  While one might not necessarily connect these pieces with each other in one’s mind, the links between them were obvious as one listened.  The program booklet provided the usual fine notes, including an interesting one from the conductor, and the texts to the vocal scores, but the innovation here that was not welcome was the introduction of a number of typos and the absence of some words and lines, departing from H&H’s usual standard of accuracy.

Goodwin conducts using precise, often very energetic gestures that give clear cues to the musicians and result in excellent shaping and dynamic variety.  He has his own clear ideas about the works, and they are generally good ones, ‘cutting edge’ even, shedding new light on and bringing fresh air into them, but without going overboard or too far afield.   He spoke to the audience while the stage was being re-arranged for the Bach; his manner is engaging and his comments as clear and concise as his conducting style.  This writer hopes there will be many future return visits with equally creative and interesting programs blending the familiar with the rarely heard, although none are scheduled for the coming season.