THE TASTES REUNITED / Red Dot Baroque / Review

 

THE TASTES REUNITED 

Red Dot Baroque 

Conservatory Concert Hall 

Wednesday (6 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 November 2024 with the title "Lively and sublime all-French concert by Red Dot Baroque".

The Tastes Reunited comes from the French phrase Les Gouts-reunis coined by Baroque composer Francois Couperin, referring to a glorious unification of Italian virtuosity and dramatics with French elegance and restraint in musical performance. That was the basis of an enlightening and entertaining all-French programme by period instrument group Red Dot Baroque (RDB), ensemble-in-residence of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, led by its founder-leader Alan Choo. 

There is no story more melodramatic than the infamous demise of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who led his musicians by stomping a wooden staff on the ground. That was until his foot got in the way, with septic gangrene being his cause of death. Percussionist Derek Koh did the honours for Lully’s rousing March for a Turkish Ceremony, which opened the evening, but he was far more careful.

Photo: Ong Shu Chen

Michel Corrette’s Concerto Comique No. 25 in G minor, based on earlier music, was a happy marriage of tradition and innovation. Choo’s improvisatory flourishes on violin were let loose on in Les Sauvages (The Savages), originally a harpsichord piece by Jean-Philippe Rameau. In quand on sçait aimer et plaire (When You Know How To Love and Please), Rachel Ho’s graceful flute entreaties were gently accompanied by pizzicato strings and Gerald Lim’s harpsichord. Then it was a return to more lively fiddling in La Furstemberg, which closed this attractive work.

Vivaldian virtuosity came to the fore in Michel Blavet’s Flute Concerto in A minor with Cheryl Lim as impressive soloist backed by two violins and continuo. Both outer movements were distinguished by thrilling runs particularly taxing cadenzas where her breath control was exemplary. The French penchant for dances was typified by a slow movement comprising two leisurely Gavottes.

Few moments in music are more sublime than Entry of Polymnie from Rameau’s late opera Les Boreades. What magic can be conjured with merely a sequence of descending scales was realised in RDB’s sensitive and finely judged performance. Piano-fanciers will know this as The Arts and the Hours from Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson’s transcription.

Contrasting simplicity with outright showiness was violinist Brenda Koh in Jean-Marie Leclair’s Violin Concerto in A minor (Op.7 No.5). Playing within the ensemble as well as the demanding solo, she displayed both agility and excellent intonation. Carving long lyrical lines in the slow movement’s aria, she followed with a dance-like interlude in the finale which looked forward to future composers like Mozart.

Photo: Ong Shu Chen

The 110-minute concert concluded with a suite of orchestral movements and arias from Rameau’s opera Hippolyte and Aricie. Its Overture was a typical French overture, opening with dotted-rhythms followed by a faster fugue. Sound effects were de rigeur in Bruit de tonnerre (Sound of Thunder) with thunder tube, metal plate and bass drum being shook and struck for all their worth.

Soprano Alison Wong’s three arias were variedly attractive. There was solemn beauty in Temple Sacre, the joy of birdsong (with pair of flutes in counterpoint) in Rossignols amoureux (Amorous Nightingales), and L’amour, comme Neptune (Love, Like Neptune) which closed in a vigorous Rigaudon with jingles of tambourines. This concert ended as clangourously as it began.