Tage Alter Musik – Almanach 2015

9 tion to the audience, and the later invitation to buy their CDs and to follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and their website, suggested a slight- ly different approach from the rather more staid European concert style. Perhaps because of their apparent emphasis on presentation, the musical side of the afternoon raised some issues. Big spaces do funny things to sound when it is forced into it –it is usually more effective to float the sound into the space and work with the acoustic, rather than trying to challenge it. Their manner of singing with a huge dynamic range, sometimes on a single note, really didn’t work. And the habit of each singer to exaggerate their own entry, often by crescendoing into it, made a mess of the polyphonic struc- ture of the music. There was also a tendency to sing louder the higher they got, whereas the opposite is usually the best tactic. Rallentandos were exces- sive, and diction often varied between the four (male) singers. It was a shame, as the music by Guerrero, Victoria (the Missa: O quam gloriosum ), Guerrero, Palestrina and Peñalosa’s Lamentations Hieremiae Prophetae was well worth listening to. The penultimate concert of the festival was “ Barbaric Beauty: Eastern European influence in music by Telemann, Jiranek, Graun and Hasse ” given by the Italian group Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra , directed by viola da gamba player Vittorio Ghielmi (St. Oswald Kirche, 4pm). Telemann’s wide range of influences is well known, as his opening Concerto in a (for recorder, viola da gamba, strings and basso continuo, TWV 52: a1) demon- strated. The first indication that this concert was going to be rather different was the sudden crash of an extraordinary cadenza from a massive Cimbalom that has been lurking on the corner of the stage. Looking to be of a very much later generation than the composers in this programme, this instrument made its presence felt on several occasions. Dorothee Oberlinger was the Blockflöte soloist in this first piece and, until last part of the con- cert, was the finest of several soloists. That honour was challenged in the final medley of pieces by Telemann, Vivaldi, Benda and East European folk melodies ( Barbarische Schönheit ), when Slovakian folk/jazz violinist Stano Palùch stepped forward for a dazzling display of virtuosic folk playing, outshining all his classical colleagues. The festival ended with the French orchestra Les Ambassadeurs and their programme Per l’Orchestra di Dresda (for the Orchestra of Dresden), taken from Vivaldi’s famous dedication of his Concerto per molti stromenti (Dreieinigkeitskirche, 8pm). Les Ambassadeurs based their programme on the extraordinary flourishing of music (and, indeed, all the arts) in early 18 th century Dresden, powered by Augustus the Strong alongside his polit- ical ambitions. This was nothing if not colourful, with a selection of pieces by Vivaldi, Pisendel, Quantz, Telemann, Zelenka and Heinichen. Many pieces, including both Vivaldi Concertos, included the wonderful sound of a pair of horns, brilliantly played by Anneke Scott and Joseph Walters, pro- ducing a sound I don’t usually associate with Vivaldi. We also witnessed the most ithyphallic contrabassoon I have ever seen, played by Karl Nieler. Zefira Valova was an outstanding violin soloist in several works, and was also a very effective concertmaster. The conductor, and occasional flute soloist, was Alexis Kossenko. I could hazard a guess as to who might have influenced his conducting style, but I found it particularly curious and dis- tracting. Expressing his wishes through the medium of rather ungainly dance moves and a bizarre series of gestures, his wild gesticulations were a visual distraction. His habit of jabbing his fingers at his fellow musicians must have been rather off-putting for them. He looked particularly strange when he turned to direct his conducting antics towards the audience. That said, whether because or despite of all this, the band played with vigour and conviction. It has to be said that violin soloist Zefira Valova was also very balletic, but she somehow managed to carry it off with far more dignity and grace. It seems that the boundary between being lithe and expressive and just looking silly is clearly rather narrow. And so ended the 31 st Tage Alter Musik. As well as the concerts, there was a large scale exhibition of musical instrument makers and CDs in the his- toric Salzstadel. One possible issue for visitors from outside Germany is that the comprehensive programme book is only published in German. Next year’s festival is from 12-16 May, as usual over the Whitsun weekend. Further information can be found at http://www.tagealtermusik-regensburg.de/. Several of this year’s festival concerts are being broadcast on BR Klassik during July and August so should be available to listen to via the internet. Profeti della Quinta in der Schottenkirche