Phantasm Farewell concert, 8 June 2015
The farewell concert featuring the 17th century’s most
exhilarating viol consort music. Phantasm, directed by Laurence Dreyfus, appeared
alongside theorbist Elizabeth Kenny performing some of the most brilliant
pieces by Gibbons, Purcell, Locke, Lawes, and Ward. This performance marked the
end of the award-winning viol consort’s 10 year residency at the University of
Oxford both as Consort-in-Residence at the Faculty of Music and at Magdalen
College. Phantasm’s concerts have become a much loved fixture of the Oxford
musical scene. This concert was an excellent opportunity to indulge in the
wonderful sound world of Phantasm as their residency comes to an end.
To the outsider it was like entering a parallel universe. The
Holywell Music Room was packed with followers of seventeenth century music for
viols, all knowing each other as performers, makers, collectors of the
instruments and discussing the fine details of different versions of the
scoring and of dating, stringing and tuning. The programme was a microcosmic
reflection of the eighteenth and nineteenth century flowering of what we call
the classical period.
Thus, the opening two Fantasy
a 3 by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) were in simple counterpoint with a great
similarity to JS Bach’s three part Inventions
for keyboard. The programme was thereafter dominated by the works of Henry
Purcell (1659-1695) with a set of Fantazia
a 3 and two sets of three Fantazia a
4 which showed hum to be the Beethoven of the age in his range of emotion
from the complexity of that composer’s late works to the set of light-hearted Bagatelle-like works which ended the
programme, apart from a glorious encore featuring all five Phantasm players
plus theorbo.
Interspersed with Purcell were Consorts (Suites in
modern parlance) by the intermediate in date Matthew Locke (1621-1677) and
William Lawes (1602-1645) in various combinations with theorbo and a set of Fancys a 4 by John Ward (1589-1638).
Here Lawes in his Royal Consort No. 5, displayed Haydnesque qualities in
his stretching of form.
But this music stands on its own demanding immense concentration
on the part of the listener. That it raises associations with more modern
genres is perhaps neither here nor there. We wish Phantasm a great future even
if no longer under the patronage of the University of Oxford.
***
Orlando Gibbons, William Lawes, John Jenkins: Music for viols with Daniel Hyde (organ), Phantasm, Magdalen College Chapel, 16 November 2012.
I first became converted to the sound of viols when I was living in Grenoble in France in the early 1990’s. At that time there was a resurgence of interest in the music of Marin Marais (1656 – 1728) following the appearance of his biopic Tous les Matins du Monde. I was fortunate to be able to attend several concerts of his music at the chapel of Ste Marie d’en Haut, idyllically situated a brisk walk up the mountain-side from the city centre. In particular I remember the variations Folies d’Espagne based on an old Iberian tune La Folia, best known as the theme of Corelli’s variations for violin and keyboard. A set of variations on the same theme for trio sonata are part of Vivaldi’s Opus 1. All three sets, musically of equal quality, were published in the first decade of the 18th century. A century later, Beethoven used a slight variant of the theme for his Thirty-two Variations in C major for piano.
Marais was the last great composer of music for viol consort before it virtually died out after a bitter battle with the violin family, becoming reduced to the role of the viola di gamba in continuo. With the recent revival of the viol the battle has resumed: after an introductory talk at a Grenoble concert, the speaker nearly came to blows with a violin maker (who happened to live on the ground floor of our apartment house) who had dared to challenge his claims for the viol!
Half a century before Marais saw the heyday of English music for Consorts of Viols which forms the repertoire of the Oxford- based consort Phantasm. However the music is surprisingly similar. Marais was Court Composer to and performed for Louis XIV while many of the English composers held court appointments they composed also for private and domestic performance. For the listener the music is immediately approachable; while repaying concentrated attention, it also provides a relaxing background. Since Phantasm revived my interest I have found it a perfect accompaniment to writing and other activities, much better than BBC Radio3 or Classic FM, both now too chatty and dumbed down..
Phantasm was founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus. In 2005 he moved to Oxford, becoming Professor the next year, as a Fellow of Magdalen. His consort has been Consort-in- Residence at the University since 2005 and at Magdalen College since 2010, promoting the study of the instrument and its performance – a report in Oxford Magazine is long overdue. The Consort’s worldwide reputation is increasing rapidly through their appearance at early music festivals and concert tours abroad and by their award- winning recordings. They have now issued fourteen recordings covering the works of the major seventeenth century British composers. At home they perform several times a year in concerts held in Magdalen College Chapel.
I attended the concert on 16 November, mainly devoted to works for six viols with organ accompaniment by William Lawes (1602-1646) but started with four Fantasies in three parts by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1602) and concluded with works by Gibbons and John Jenkins (1592-1687). The Chapel was filled with an audience, largely of student age. The average age must have been less than half that usual at chamber concerts in Oxford! What struck me at once was the extreme clarity and transparency of the playing. Each part was clearly distinguishable so the music had a distinctive 18th century contrapuntal air rather than the sound normally associated with early music. This was in no small part due to the meticulous tuning before each set of pieces; one realised that the tuning of around thirty-six strings is considerably more difficult than the sixteen of the string quartet. Sloppy tuning may be the reason this music is not more popular than it is. Hearing the tuning is part of the experience of listening which is absent in recordings. Each composer had his own recognisable voice giving a programme of great variety.
I came away recognising an enormous gap in my musical education which I need to fill though I shall not miss the next concert on 18 February devoted to Bach’s Art of Fugue, a masterpiece of the eighteenth century. Details of future programmes and of Phantasm’s recordings can be found on www.phantasm.org.uk .
9 December 2012
Published on website of British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies and in modified form to Oxford Magazine.
JS Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, Phantasm, Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford, 18 February 2013.
Phantasm, the consort of viols founded in 1994 and directed by Laurence Dreyfus is now based in Magdalen College Oxford where Dreyfus is Professor of Music. From its many performances around the world and especially for its recordings of music for viols by seventeenth century English composers, it must surely be today’s leading group of its kind for its clarity of texture and meticulous attention to detail. They have now turned their attention to the eighteenth century with performances of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) and transcriptions by Mozart for string quartet of some of the Forty-eight keyboard Preludes and Fugues.
The Art of Fugue represents the last of the three great summations of Bach’s chamber music. The first of these – The Equal -Tempered Keyboard (to give it a more accurate translation) of forty-eight preludes and fugues- was written in part to demonstrate the advantages of opening up the full range of keys to instruments with equal temperament. It is therefore a bit of an anachronism to play these on a natural tempered consort, restricting the range of keys to those near C major (even the E major of the Mozart arrangements is stretching things a bit). The second is the Goldberg Variations. The Art of Fugue is both a set of fugues and a set of variations forming a sequence developing from the simple subject of the first varying the subject in rhythm and inversion and adding progressively new subjects which recur throughout.
The work is written as a set of nineteen Contrapuncti, grouped as four simple four-part fugues, three four- part fugues in contrary motion, four fugues on several subjects, four two-part canonic fugues, three mirror fugues and the final unfinished Contrapunctus XIX, a mammoth four-part fugue with four subjects, one spelling the composer’s name. Two great much-debated uncertainties surround the work. It is written in open score, no particular instrumentation or vocalisation is specified, indicating that it can be performed by any set of singers or instrumentalists. Why was it not completed? For the really talented keyboard player it can be used as exercise in reading from open score but for amateurs like myself a good way to get to know the work is the arrangement for piano four-hands by Bruno G Seidlhofer published by Breitkopf & Härtel. However, knowing it this way there is a danger of not seeing the wood for half the trees, similarly for one of a quartet of players. The opportunity to hear it played by a quartet of viols with the clarity of texture of Phantasm was a valuable experience; already in Contrapunctus III did we notice something missed. As for the unfinished ending, often attributed to the composer’s increasing blindness, I like to think of him saying with a modest smile to the performers, whether family or friends, ‘Now I have taught you enough – finish it yourselves’!
On this occasion the performers were Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director, Emilia Benjamin, treble, Jonathon Manson, tenor, and Markku Luolagan-Mikkola, bass viols, a perfectly integrated consort. The order of the programme was rather odd. It opened with six of Mozart’s arrangements, more exercises in composition than offering new enlightenment to the listener. There followed Contrapuncti I-VI before the interval – a strange place to stop. It would have been better to start the second half with the turning point of the work, Contrapunctus VIII, introducing three new subjects including the motif of repeated quavers which permeates the rest of the work. Instead we had the intrusion of a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, a work of little merit compared to the surrounding Bach. It would have been far better to have interspersed the canonic and mirror fugues.
The surroundings of the crowded candlelit Chapel were ideal for the communal concentration on the music, despite the hardness of the pews. Thank you, Phantasm.
21 February 2013
JS Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, Phantasm, Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford, 18 February 2013.
Phantasm, the consort of viols founded in 1994 and directed by Laurence Dreyfus is now based in Magdalen College Oxford where Dreyfus is Professor of Music. From its many performances around the world and especially for its recordings of music for viols by seventeenth century English composers, it must surely be today’s leading group of its kind for its clarity of texture and meticulous attention to detail. They have now turned their attention to the eighteenth century with performances of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) and transcriptions by Mozart for string quartet of some of the Forty-eight keyboard Preludes and Fugues.
The Art of Fugue represents the last of the three great summations of Bach’s chamber music. The first of these – The Equal -Tempered Keyboard (to give it a more accurate translation) of forty-eight preludes and fugues- was written in part to demonstrate the advantages of opening up the full range of keys to instruments with equal temperament. It is therefore a bit of an anachronism to play these on a natural tempered consort, restricting the range of keys to those near C major (even the E major of the Mozart arrangements is stretching things a bit). The second is the Goldberg Variations. The Art of Fugue is both a set of fugues and a set of variations forming a sequence developing from the simple subject of the first varying the subject in rhythm and inversion and adding progressively new subjects which recur throughout.
The work is written as a set of nineteen Contrapuncti, grouped as four simple four-part fugues, three four- part fugues in contrary motion, four fugues on several subjects, four two-part canonic fugues, three mirror fugues and the final unfinished Contrapunctus XIX, a mammoth four-part fugue with four subjects, one spelling the composer’s name. Two great much-debated uncertainties surround the work. It is written in open score, no particular instrumentation or vocalisation is specified, indicating that it can be performed by any set of singers or instrumentalists. Why was it not completed? For the really talented keyboard player it can be used as exercise in reading from open score but for amateurs like myself a good way to get to know the work is the arrangement for piano four-hands by Bruno G Seidlhofer published by Breitkopf & Härtel. However, knowing it this way there is a danger of not seeing the wood for half the trees, similarly for one of a quartet of players. The opportunity to hear it played by a quartet of viols with the clarity of texture of Phantasm was a valuable experience; already in Contrapunctus III did we notice something missed. As for the unfinished ending, often attributed to the composer’s increasing blindness, I like to think of him saying with a modest smile to the performers, whether family or friends, ‘Now I have taught you enough – finish it yourselves’!
On this occasion the performers were Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director, Emilia Benjamin, treble, Jonathon Manson, tenor, and Markku Luolagan-Mikkola, bass viols, a perfectly integrated consort. The order of the programme was rather odd. It opened with six of Mozart’s arrangements, more exercises in composition than offering new enlightenment to the listener. There followed Contrapuncti I-VI before the interval – a strange place to stop. It would have been better to start the second half with the turning point of the work, Contrapunctus VIII, introducing three new subjects including the motif of repeated quavers which permeates the rest of the work. Instead we had the intrusion of a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, a work of little merit compared to the surrounding Bach. It would have been far better to have interspersed the canonic and mirror fugues.
The surroundings of the crowded candlelit Chapel were ideal for the communal concentration on the music, despite the hardness of the pews. Thank you, Phantasm.
21 February 2013