ABS Summer Festival Explores Early Handel

Last night saw the opening concert in this year’s Summer Bach Festival presented by American Bach Soloists (ABS). The guest artist for the occasion was soprano Mary Wilson, singing two solo-voice secular cantatas by George Frideric Handel, both of which he composed in Rome in 1707. The program began with HWV 170, Tra le fiamme (among the flames); and the second half of the program opened with HWV 99, Il delirio amoroso (the lover’s delirium). (The HMV numbers of the cantatas follow alphabetical order.) Both cantatas set texts by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili.

Handel had traveled to Rome to develop his skills in composing opera. Unfortunately, the public theaters had been shut down by papal decree. As the song goes, secular cantatas would have to do until the real thing came along. It would be fair to say that both of these cantatas present Handel at the beginning of his learning curve. He clearly had not yet grasped the challenge of establishing a suitable duration for each text being set by a single movement. As a result, while Wilson’s voice was as heavenly as ever, the time devoted to these two cantatas amounted to too much of a not-particularly-good thing. Rome did not do Handel any favors, and he seems to have repaid the city in kind.

The only music by Johann Sebastian Bach was the final work on the program, the BWV 1049 fourth of the six “Brandenburg” concertos. This concerto features three solo instruments, two recorders (Aldo Abreu and Stephen Hammer) and one violin (Jacob Ashworth). As might be guessed (if not already known), much of the concerto is a study in the rhetoric of parallel thirds, which account for most of the duo flute work. However, in both the opening and closing movements, the violinist is confronted with some dazzling rapid-fire passages, as well as some engaging double-stop bowing. Thus, by the conclusion of the concerto, all of the soloists have had more than their fair share of a say in the matter, making the music a thoroughly absorbing experience for wrapping up the program.

The instrumental selections following the HWV 170 cantata presented the two “usual suspects” to provide Bach with company. The first selection was by Georg Philipp Telemann, his TWV 52:a1 concerto in A minor for recorder and gamba, with Abreu again as recorder soloist, joined this time by Kenneth Slowik. As might be guessed, the other concerto composer was Antonio Vivaldi, represented by his RV 208 violin concerto in D major, given the title “Il grosso mogul” (the great Mogul). The soloist was Ukrainian-born Tatiana Chulochnikova, who received the Jeffrey Thomas Award in 2016. Both of these concerto offerings were engaging accounts that rose above the less-stimulating Handel offerings.