It was in two concerts, mixing Bach and Vivaldi, that the famous Freiburger Barockorchester (Fribourg Baroque Orchestra) presented the Six Brandenburg Concertos at the Lanaudière Festival this weekend, Friday and Sunday.
The musical approach contrasts with that of the complete works of Brandenburg Concertoshappy and friendly, on modern instruments, at the closing of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, around James Ehnes, Andrew Man, Luc Beauséjour and several Canadian musicians, in a concert, in front of an audience placed on and behind the stage of the Maison symphonique, a month ago.
This way of extending the sauce is not a religion for the Fribourgeois, who, while Lanaudière hosted Les Arts Florissants, Saturday, went, in between, to “make the most of the package” by traveling to Ottawa, to give the Six Brandenburgers in one go at the “Music and Beyond” Festival.
Musicality intact
These trips were added to the imponderables in the transatlantic voyages that nearly jeopardized these concerts. Some musicians did not arrive until Friday, which led to small changes: the 5e brandenburger replacing, on Friday, the 6e, finally played on Sunday.
Despite the very short time to adapt to the time difference, the performances had all the desired tone and musical bearing. We noted millimetric nuances (what finesse in the Polacca from 3e movement of the 1er brandenburger !) and a beautiful ensemble playing, a real complicity, even though we understand well that, the group being incomplete, the rehearsal time, here, was not that expected.
The question after the wonderful Brandenburgers of the Chamber Music Festival is of course: “What do old instruments really bring?” Answer: much more than one might think. The gut strings allow for a softer and more subtle sound, and sound textures of which the harpsichord, in the 5e brandenburgeremerges perfectly.
Other sound bonuses are those of the recorders (4e concerto), natural horns (1er concerto) and the traverse (5e), as well as, in Bach as in Vivaldi, the oboes (1er brandenburger or the fruity solo in the Concerto RV 577 where the 2e brandenburger), who, with the Fribourgeois, surpass what is heard, locally, in baroque music. For the always perilous playing of the ancient trumpet in the 2e concerto, It’s a matter of taste.
A final aspect of differentiation is the placement on stage. In the 1er brandenburger, horns (centered) and oboes (which we would have liked more at the front of the stage) are closer together, which works wonders in the 2e trio of Final but it is a bit of a letdown for the oboes in the 1ster movement. On the other hand, in the 6e concerto, The spacing of the two violas with the cello in the middle works wonders as do the viols on the sides. This 6esymbolic of this winged Bach, was the jewel of the ensemble.
Musically, the Freiburger Barockorchester with Cecilia Bernardini gains a solar humanity, largely absent from the rhetorical and demonstrative interpretations, often cold and tense, formerly led by Petra Müllejans or Gottfried von der Goltz. A priori anecdotal, the Concerto RV 156Sunday, showed it perfectly, with its musical flow, an absence of jolts in the 1er movement and vitality without brutality in the Final.