Sunday at the Boston Early Music Festival

The Flanders Recorder Quartet

At some point during all-recorder concerts, I always find myself thinking of Samuel Johnson's remark about the women preachers: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." I really think that even if you play as many different recorders as well as these guys do, it still isn't enough variety for a concert-length program. Adding keyboard, strings, or especially singing makes it a lot easier on everyone.

That being said, the Flanders Recorder Quarted did do one of my favorite recorder concerts of all time four or five years ago, when they toured with a very good singer and did the English Consort Song repertoire.

I should also point out that a very large fraction of the audience on Sunday afternoon was people who play in and direct recorder consorts, so a very common remark to overhear (or make) at this concert was, "We should play some of this stuff." So there are reasons for some concerts that go beyond the aesthetic satisfaction of the audience at the time of the concert.

I thought the second half of this program worked better than the first half -- the first half was mostly early sixteenth century music played on Renaissance recorders. It was interesting how they combined two or three of the pieces seamlessly into a set, but it really wasn't enough variety.

On the second half, they played one set with three grounds on three different consorts of instruments: medieval, Renaissance, and baroque. The Renaissance one (Upon La, Mi, Re by Thomas Preston (d. ca. 1563)) was the piece on the program that most made me say, "We should play that." And the Purcell Chacony, which I have played, mostly made me say, "They need a serpent." I love recorders, but I really think there are other instruments that work better for that kind of driving bass line.

The final piece on the program was an arrangement from a Sweelinck keyboard piece of Dowland's Lachrimae Pavane. That was the best piece on the program for showing off what the recorder in the hands of these virtuoso players can be used for.

Festival Wrapup

I got home to a flurry of emails from a set of keyboard playing friends with the subject BEMF -- dying, and me with it. I'm not sure which of the three people wrote that subject line. I don't have permission to quote any of them directly by name, but the complaints included the dearth of keyboard makers exhibiting, the poor choice of instruments at some of the harpsichord concerts, and the poor presentation skills of some of the performers. There apparently wasn't a harpsichord masterclass this year.

I didn't see any of the brass players who normally come from out of town. The Sunday afternoon recorder concert was lightly attended two years ago, and even more so this time. Saturday's 11 PM concert, with a reputation for often being the best concert of the festival usually fills at least the downstairs of Jordan Hall, and didn't this year. Of the events I went to, only the Friday concerts were as well-attended as I would expect.

So I think the Festival is in trouble. I really love a lot of things about it, and I hope they pull through. I think there's some evidence that the organizers don't entirely understand how important the Festival's diversity is in making it such an important part of so many people's lives, and I hope they figure it out by next time.

I'd really be happy to give them good advice about how to get more and better brass playing. They essentially ignore all the European early brass playing, and it's much better organized than anything we have on this side of the pond. If they got one of the good ensembles that has several kinds of instruments and some good teachers, it could really be a draw for a lot of people who love the idea of cornetto or serpent or baroque trumpet and haven't had a chance to hear it or to study it.

Tomorrow I get to blog about something else. I enjoyed lots of things about the last week, but I'm looking forward to being able to write about other things.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday at the Boston Early Music Festival
2. Thursday at the Boston Early Music Festival
3. Saturday at the Boston Early Music Festival