Inside the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. (Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill)

by Michael Caruso

Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, opened its 15th season with a program entitled “Fall: A Chill in the Air,” which was performed twice this past weekend. I caught the Sunday afternoon, Oct. 23, performance given in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill and came away convinced that Tempesta is currently offering the finest renditions of the baroque repertoire available to local music lovers.

Co-directors Gwyn Roberts & Richard Stone assembled a roster of scores that began with a true 18th century warhorse and then ventured into parts of the repertoire few of us have ever encountered in concert.

That opening number was Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in F major, “Autumn,” from “The Four Seasons,” and it received a superb reading with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai taking the lead and leading one of the largest complements of players in recent Tempesta memory. They produced a sumptuous overall orchestral sound in which phrases were lyrically shaped, dynamics were stunningly terraced between soft and loud, balances between the full tutti and the smaller concertino were immaculately maintained, and Ngai proffered dazzling pyrotechnical solo playing that evoked an autumnal festival in the countryside. Harpsichordist Adam Pearl provided exemplary continuo support during the slow second movement. Then Ngai brought back jaunty rhythms and raucous accents during the closing Allegro. Ensemble throughout the entire Concerto was flawless.

Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco’s “Concerto III for Several Instruments” featured Roberts and Heloise Degrugillier as the work’s flute soloists. Ably supported by the strings, Pearl and Stone on lute, they projected the delicate timbres of their wooden instruments with admirable efficacy in the thrilling first movement, the lyrical second, the return-to-fast-and-furious third movement and the seductive grace of the closing pair of Passepieds. Ngai oversaw impressively molded dynamic swells throughout the score, spicing things up with sharp, thrusting off-the-beat accents.

Roberts and Degrugillier switched to recorders as the soloists in Francesco Maria Veracini’s “Overture VI in G minor.” Structured more like a “sonata da chiesa” — the so-called “church sonatas” that Haydn eventually turned into the sonata, trio, quartet, concerto and symphony of the Classical style — it sports four movements. Both soloists projected high, shimmering tones that stunningly stood out against the backdrop of dramatic swells of dynamics, focusing the ear on the composer’s mastery of harmonic progression. The slow second movement flowed lyrically, the third bristled from explosive counterpoint, and the closing Minuet was revealed as a decidedly muscular dance.

The players were joined by soprano Marguerite Krull for highlights from Pascal Collasse’s marvelous “The Ballet of the Four Seasons” and Louis-Nicholas Clerambault’s secular cantata, “Medea,” based on the ancient Greek drama of the sorceress who kills her own children in a rage of jealousy. Krull’s singing was particularly passionate in the latter, but her anachronistic vibrato, rather that a historically appropriate straight tone embellished with a gentle tremelo, often slipped into a wobble that blurred pitch and failed to mesh with the straight tones of Tempesta’s players.

A steady vibrato did not become the default mode of classical singing until the middle of the 19th century, more than a full century after this “Medea” was written. We know this from Rossini’s letters complaining about it at the time it took place. Krull would have done well listening more carefully to the instrumental playing surrounding her, especially as it was superb in setting the tone of the melodrama.

CHORAL EVENSONG

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church celebrated Choral Evensong Sunday, Oct. 16, with a roster of music that included works by Johannes Brahms, Thomas Attwood Walmisley and Josef Rheinberger.

The two scores by Brahms, “Mein Jesu der du mich” and “Fugue in A-flat minor,” were performed prior to the start of Evensong by the parish’s organ scholar Joseph Russell on the church’s splendid Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ. Their respective form — chorale, prelude and fugue — revealed the dichotomy of Brahms. Although he lived in the middle of the 19th century Romantic epoch (his life spanned 1833-97) he was a dyed-in-the-wool classicist.

He not only loved the older forms of musical composition, but he also excelled at composing within their structures as efficaciously as any composer of the 18th century. Johann Sebastian Bach was among his musical idols. One can hear that in how effortlessly he expressed the heightened emotional content of the romantic aesthetic via the baroque forms of chorale-prelude (based on the Lutheran church chorales he heard as a boy) and the contrapuntal organ fugue (peerlessly mastered by Bach).

Russell’s playing revealed the often-overlooked baroque organ somewhat hidden within the plethora of orchestral registrations that are the best-known calling card of St. Paul’s Aeolian-Skinner. He beautifully highlighted the chorale theme of “Mein Jesu der du mich” (Jesus, it is by you) and projected the flowing linear texture of the Fugue.

The service’s principal choral works were Walmisley’s “Magnificat” (My soul doth magnify the Lord) and “Nunc Dimittis” (Lord, now lettest thou they servant depart in peace) and Rheinberger’s anthem at the Offertory, “Bide with us, for evening shadows darken.”

Walmisley’s name is one I had never encountered in performance prior to this Choral Evensong, perhaps because he lived so short a life, 1814-56, and so there isn’t a whole lot of music composed by him to be heard. What a pity! His “Magnificat” is characterized by a compelling sweep that offers effectively colored harmonies and textures delineating the immediate and deeper meanings of its text. The “Nunc Dimittis” successfully balances evocations of medieval plainsong against fully harmonized passages to once again communicate the various levels of meaning of the text. Parish music director Zachary Fritsch-Hemenway led sympathetic readings of both of these lovely scores, eliciting expressive singing from his choristers and exemplary support at the organ from Russell.

The music of Josef Rheinberger, who lived from 1839 until 1901, is both well known and highly regarded. His anthem, “Bide with us,” is tailor-made for Anglican Choral Evensong, even if its text is German. Here Fritsch-Hemenway displayed his mastery of choral conducting by drawing a well-rounded, full-bodied sound from his choir that conjured up the warm glow of the setting of the autumnal sun so beautifully that one didn’t need to understand each and every word to comprehend and treasure their intention.

St. Paul’s Church will next celebrate Choral Evensong Sunday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m., and then mark All Souls Day (Nov. 2) with a performance of Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem Mass” Sunday, Nov. 6, also at 5 p.m.

Contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.