Tage Alter Musik – Almanach 2018

pieces by Peranda, Conti, Marcello, Kuhnau, Palestrina, Stölzel, and Durante, as well as Bach. There were no fewer than three mass settings (from Peranda, Palestrina, and Du- rante) in the Kyrie / Gloria format also used by Bach. Many pieces were Bach’s adapta- tions or rearrangements of pre-existing pieces, for example, his keyboard version (BWV 974) of the Marcello Oboe Concerto, both versions of which were performed, the oboe concerto with Tatjana Zimre as the im- pressive soloist, the harpsichord version played by Andreas Küppers, his habit of spreading most of the chords rather disturb- ing the pulse. Of the singers, soprano Joowon Chung particularly impressed me in Conti’s cantata Languet anima mea as did Magdalene Harer as soloists in the Stölzel/Bach Bist Du bei mir (BWV 508). Al- though Robin Peter Müller directed from his first violin position, one of the six Ensemble Polyharmonique singers also added his own rather confusing directions, which looked rather odd, whatever it did to the cohesion of the combined groups. The late night concert (10:45pm. Schot- tenkirche St. Jakob) was given by the tene- brae consort with their programme the Golden age of spain – tomás luis de vic- toria – responsories and lamentations for holy saturday . It turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend. After the opening six-part funeral poem Versa est in Luctum by Alonso Lobo, a contemporary of Victoria (sung from the far altar end of the church), they sang the Victoria Responses Amicus meus, Judas mercator, O vos omnes, and Sepulto Domino, the Incipit oratio Jeremiae Prophetae, and the 1603 Missa pro defunctis: Requiem, written after the death of the Em- press of Spain and Austria (and sister Philip II), his hitherto patron. The Tenebrae Con- sort sing a very wide range of repertoire but demonstrated impressive security in this dis- tinctive early repertoire, helped by the im- pressive clarity of the four sopranos and pu- rity of intonation from all. In sharp compar- ison with a choral conductor mentioned above, Nigel Short was impressively modest in his conducting style, putting the focus on the ten singers and, perhaps tellingly, ac- knowledging them fully during the enthusi- astic applause. Sunday 20 May The five (or was it six?) Sunday concerts started in the historic Reichssaal (11am) with the Swiss group les Passions de l’ame led by violinist meret lüthi with sabine stoffer . They played four Partitas (I, III, V, and VI) from Biber’s Harmonia Artificiosa andrewbensonwilson.org 9 Tenebrae Consort in der Schottenkirche InAlto in der St.-Oswald-Kirche