by Marvin J. Ward

Amherst, MA, 30 March 2008.  Arcadia Players, directed by Ian Watson, brought its 19th season to a close in Grace Episcopal Church on the Town Common here yesterday evening with a well-crafted historically-informed performance of an all-Haydn program that elicited shouts of “Bravo” and brought listeners to their feet more than once.

Works from 3 different genres and 3 different periods of Haydn’s output were presented in chronological order.  The opener was the 1768 Symphony No. 49 in f, Hob. I:49, “La Passione.”  The name was given to the work by a French publisher, not by Haydn, but seems appropriate because some of its melodies and its mood are not dissimilar to some of those in the composer’s 1785 Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.  It was apparently also composed for Holy Week, and bears incipit and explicit superscriptions: In Nomine Deo and Finis Laus Deo.  It was his last symphony to use the slow-fast-slow-fast Sonata da chiesa pattern, and to use the same key signature in all its movements.  The harpsichord continuo was performed on fortepiano here to avoid the need for yet a 3rd different keyboard instrument for the evening.  The music is serious and expressively intense; the playing was crisp and precise, the performance taught and tight.

The ca. 1784 Concerto in D for Klavier, Hob. XVIII:11 followed.  Monica Jakuc Leverett, who is retiring from Smith College at the end of the current academic year after 39 years of service, played the school’s Paul McNulty replica of a ca. 1803 Walter (Vienna) instrument.  The opening Vivace in sonata form is followed by a slow Un poco adagio movement and the work concludes with a Rondo all’ungarese marked Allegro assai.  Playing was smooth and lyrical and balance was excellent, a superb performance by all.

After the pause, the orchestra was reduced to strings, trumpets, and timpani and an organ, played by Gregory Hayes, who had provided the fortepiano continuo in the symphony, was brought in, all of whom were joined by the chorus for a performance of the 1798 Missa in Angustiis in d, Hob. XXII:11.  If the reader sees ‘angst’ in this word, s/he is not far off: it means ‘distress,’ purportedly caused by the approach towards Austria from the South of the Napoleonic armies during his 1796-97 Italian campaign.  Austria suffered 4 defeats that latter year and was forced to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio, ceding its territories in Northern Italy to France.   The mass later came to be called the “Lord Nelson Mass,” in honor of his defeat of Napoleon’s naval forces in the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, about 6 weeks prior to the first performance on 15 September.  This name became solidified after Nelson reportedly heard a performance of the mass some 2 years later on a visit to the Esterházys, where and when he met Haydn.

This is a symphonic mass, i.e., the whole is structured, as are some of the longer movements within it, like a symphony with contrasting tempi and with solo voices alternating with choral sections much as individual instruments have solo turns in symphonic works.  Watson applied the principle of using members of the chorus as soloists, traditionally used by this group for its performance of Handel’s Messiah, to this performance of the mass.  It worked as well here, offering a pleasing and uncustomary variety while focusing the listeners’ attention on the music rather than on star singers standing front and center, because, except for the Kyrie, they stayed in place in the choir.  Consequently, the performance moved right along and was cohesive, bright yet emotionally persuasive, all in all brilliant.

In his pre-concert talk, retired UMass choral director E. Wayne Abercrombie characterized Haydn’s music as “intensely and economically inventive.”   This program offered a good cross-section as proof, yet the pieces also offered a sense of interconnection.  They made good partners for each other while also offering variety.  None of these works is of the ebulliently joyous flavor, like The Creation or The Seasons, for example; the keyboard concerto comes closest.  This is not particularly easy music to get an audience to savor and like, but the artists did so exceedingly well.

Watson has taken this group of fine musicians, both instrumentalists (some of whom also perform with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society) and singers, to “the next level,” as they say.  His enthusiasm for both the music itself and the committed performance of it is palpable and clearly infectious.  His understanding of the scores and insistence on excellence in their rendering are also eminently evident.   His style and engagement are making their impression on both the performers and the listeners.  This was a fabulous finale to a fine season.  Audiences are growing in size and talking about what they hear – there’s a “buzz,” as they say, and are undoubtedly anxiously anticipating the 20th season in the fall.