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| Photo: Yoel Levy |
In “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”, British writer Louis de Bernières’ 1994
novel, the person plucking the strings of the mandolin is an Italian World War
II army officer by the name of Antonio Corelli. In the story he is, however a
descendent of the Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli. Titled “Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin”, Concert No.5 of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s 2018-2019
subscription season hosted duo-mandolin artists Mari Carmen Simon (Spain) and
Jacob Reuven. The JBO’s strings (with theorbo: Bari Moscovitz) were led from
the harpsichord by the orchestra’s founder and music director David Shemer.
This writer attended the event on May 19th at the International Jerusalem YMCA.
On the subject of Arcangelo Corelli, his reputation and musical influence
spread as far as the imperial court of China, but his known works are very few:
four publications of trio sonatas and one each of solo sonatas and concerti
grossi. The JBO program incorporated two of his Op. 6 concerti grossi, each
made up of six movements of different tempo and pacing. These were the fashion
of the day; played at social gatherings, the movements allowed for the
different court dances that were popular at the time. In both No.2 and No.6,
the concertino consisted of violinists Noam Schuss and Dafna Ravid with Orit
Messer-Jacobi on ‘cello; their concertino playing was pleasing both technically
(with moments of brilliance) and stylistically. Altogether, the orchestra gave
expression to the works’ rich array of concertino and ripieno ensemble textures
and Corelli’s audacious harmonic surprises, the works’ melancholic movements
never descending to sentimentalism.
Francesco Geminiani was held to be the equal of Corelli in his own day;
however, with the exception of a few solo sonatas and his treatises on “good
taste” in violin playing, Geminiani has largely ended up being ignored. But
his great originality shines both in the writing and re-writing of his own
music, and in his arrangements of works of Corelli. Moving to London, where he
discovered that the English were more than eager to hear music of Corelli,
Geminiani was quick to capitalize on this by arranging his teacher’s solo
sonatas as concerti grossi. Of the orchestral arrangements of Corelli’s Op.5
Sonatas for solo violin and continuo that Geminiani published as new concerti
grossi, the most popular is Concerto Grosso in D minor H.143, that on the “La
Follia” (The Folly) theme over a repeated bass line, this theme being one
of those most used for variations in Baroque repertoire. In Geminiani’s
setting, Corelli’s virtuosic violin part (Noam Schuss) is mostly unchanged, but
a second solo violin part (Dafna Ravid) is ingeniously added and the whole work
is shaped by the contrast between tutti and solo playing. Geminiani made one
change to Corelli’s orchestral disposition, adding a viola (Yael Patish) to the
solo group. Here, Orit Messer-Jacobi played the ‘cello solo part. In
outstanding playing splendidly and virtuosically led by Schuss, the players
swept the listener from variations ranging from intense and exciting character
to those of tranquil, almost spiritual disposition; these abrupt changes of
mood were markers of “insanity” for the Baroque imagination. Indeed, Geminiani
was described by his contemporary and compatriot Giuseppe Tartini as “Il
Furibondo” (the wild man)!
The mandolin has played an important role in Western music since the
Renaissance and the number of Baroque composers who wrote attractive works for
the instrument documents the fact that it was then a much-played instrument
that musical audiences liked to hear. The Jerusalem audience was nevertheless
totally enchanted by the mandolin works on the program and by the skill and
consummate artistry of the concert’s guest artists. Performing Antonio
Vivaldi’s Concerto in G major for two mandolins and orchestra RV 532, Mari Carmen Simon and Jacob Reuven - Duo 16
Strings - and the JBO instrumentalists invited the listener into the magical
world of the mandolin’s gossamer-fine timbres, its expressive possibilities and
the demands made on other instruments playing with them; not that the opening
movement emerged wispy or insubstantial. On the contrary, the Allegro breathed
freshness and exuberance, as one mandolin continually imitated the other’s
phrases and with very firmly etched phrasing. In the Andante, the artists’
delicate- and finely-coordinated playing then led into a whirlwind of action
and virtuosity in the final Allegro. In Trio Sonata in E minor by Florentine
court composer, singer and lutenist Carlo Arrigoni, the duo was joined by
harpsichord (Shemer), ‘cello (Messer-Jacobi) and theorbo (Moscovitz) in
performance brimming with Mediterranean sunshine, cantabile beauty, invention
and daring (especially in the Courante). With the mandolin sharing the exact
same tuning as the violin, Mari Carmen Simon and Jacob Reuven chose to perform
J.S.Bach’s Concerto in D minor for two violins and orchestra BWV 1043. The
result was indeed a stirring, buoyant performance of the outer movements, with
authoritative playing on the part of the guest artists; in the Largo movement,
attentive listening by conductor and all the players in the sound-world of
pianissimo delicacy gave rise to sublimely elegant and sensuous waves of silken melodiousness.
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