Jochewed Schwarz (harpsichord) and Ashley Solomon (Baroque flute) perform works of French and German composers at a concert at the Hebrew University (Jerusalem)

 

Jochewed Schwarz, Ashley Solomon (Yitzhak Hochmann)

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Monday noon concert on April 4th 2022 featured Ashley Solomon (UK) on traverso (Baroque flute) and Jochewed Schwarz – harpsichord. Ashley Solomon opened the recital by saying that the works performed would show the changing roles of harpsichord and flute in chamber music, starting from the harpsichord's role of providing accompaniment, to being an equal force with the flute, to taking on a concertato role, as in works by Johann Sebastian's sons. 

 

From French composer/flautist Jacques-Martin Hotteterre's collection of flute arrangements of airs and brunettes of c. 1721, the program opened with two of the ornamented song settings. In the bitter-sweet "Pourquoy, doux Rossignol" (brunette - Jean-Baptiste de Bousset), to a melancholic ostinato figure on the harpsichord, Solomon, with much stylistic refinement, expounded the pleas to a nightingale of a desolate lover whose heart is "consumed in its own fire". The livelier, major "L'autre jour ma Cloris" (Ballard) presented love in a more favourable light, as Solomon progressively integrated the French style's myriad of ornamentation detail and texture into the flow of phrases without disturbing the natural flow of the music's melodic invention.  

 

Although Michel de la Barre's reputation stems more from his playing than his composing, the fact remains that he was the first to publish solo music specifically for flute. His eighteen books of flute music, published 1694-1725, were predominant in the emergence of that instrument as one of the most popular of the 18th century. In de la Barre's Sonata "L'inconnue" (The Unknown) in G major, written at the court of Louis XIV, Schwarz and Solomon gave expression to the music's French disposition, Solomon's graceful and elegantly ornamented playing linked in like-minded partnership with Schwarz, the continuo part also displaying a  some clearly soloistic traits. Following the work's pensive opening then moving into an especially tender section, the extensive Chaconne teemed with interest and variety, featuring a wealth of flute textures and techniques, with some pizzazzy moments on the part of the harpsichord.

 

Ashley Solomon introduced J.S.Bach's Sonata for flute and harpsichord in B minor BW 1030, maintaining that it is one of the most challenging works for the transverse flute and by reminding the listener that its opening movement (Andante) is the longest sonata movement ever composed by Bach. The work itself is sometimes referred to as an example of a "Sonate auf Concertenart": in keeping with Bach's obligato sonatas, the harpsichord part is of equal importance with the flute. Making for a rewarding listening experience, the artists created the rich weave of the sonata, highlighting its melodic allure, textural variety, its subtleties and scope for independence of gesture and expression. Alongside concerto-style writing for the flute, as in the opening movement, with Solomon highlighting Bach’s ingenious manipulations of the principal subject, Schwarz took on the different roles of Bach's lavish and imaginative harpsichord part - the ripieno in the Largo e dolce, a courtly dance illuminated by the unhurried lyricism with the Presto fugue played out with flute, keyboard right hand and keyboard left hand in the manner of a trio sonata. In this work of astounding virtuosity, this most vivid of canvases, one has the feeling that Solomon and Schwarz have addressed each concept and gesture. Masters of historically informed music-making, they revealed the narrative and enigmas that emerge from Bach’s music, elements, indeed defying words.

 

In the second half of the 18th century, with the transverse flute becoming one of the most popular instruments among circles of "Kenner and Liebhaber" (Connoisseurs and Devotees), much music appeared for the instrument. Among the many composers contributing to the growing body of music for the flute were some members of the Bach family. Moving from repertoire referred to as "gelehrt" (learned) to "galant" (in Jochewed Schwarz' words), the recital in the intimate concert hall of the Hebrew University's Musicology Department concluded with works of two of J.S.Bach's sons. Carl Philipp Emanuel, the most boldly innovative and original of them, is best known for his large collection of harpsichord works. Although the flute sonatas are dwarfed in number by his hundreds of harpsichord sonatas, these eighteen flute works are of the highest quality and rank among the finest of the composer’s chamber works. The majority of them date from 1745-1766, when the composer was in the service of the flute-playing King Frederick II.  Schwarz and Solomon's delightful, communicative and entertaining performance of C.P.E. Bach's Sonata in G major Wq 86 reflected Emanuel's countering of the learned style of the early 18th century masters with freedom of inspiration and emancipation of form.  In his Essay on the True Art of Playing a Keyboard Instrument C.P.E. Bach had written: “Play from the soul, not like a trained bird! …. A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved…"  Interestingly, the title of Op.16 of Johann Christian Bach, the youngest and least-known of J.S.Bach's sons, is "6 Sonatas for Keyboard with Flute Accompaniment". Performing the stirring two-movement D major Sonata Op.16 No.1 by the more conservative Johann Christian, its music chronicling the stylistic developments of the latter half of the 18th century with elements of the Classical-bound prevailing Viennese style, Jochewed Schwarz and Ashley Solomon concluded the program's musical journey - a continuum of less than 100 years, but one tracing decisive stylistic transition. 

 

With Ashley Solomon playing on a copy of a Palanca flute (Martin Wenner) and Jochewed Schwarz on a Frank Hubbard two-manual harpsichord, this recital was certainly one of the current concert season's most outstanding events.