"Captain Corelli's Mandolin": the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra hosts mandolin players Mari Carmen Simon (Spain) and Jacob Reuven in works of Italian composers and J.S.Bach

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.