If it ain’t baroque…

Lately my musical tastes have run to hiphop and bossa nova (specifically to Joao Gilberto, whose voice is the aural equivalent of fine Belgian chocolate), but there’s an ancient, racial memory in my bones that loves the old stuff, and I don’t mean Buddy Holly. It turned last night’s classical baroque concert into nostalgic bliss.

Jan, my next door neighbor, popped in around 6pm with a ticket to the Portland Baroque Orchestra performance of Marian music (i.e., music written to the Virgin Mary). And so–unexpectedly–I headed downtown to the old Portland Baptist Church, slipped into a rose velvet pew in the balcony and had the time of my life. (Thank you, Jan)

This being glassland, black tie means “wear the jeans without the holes,” and the orchestra sported everything from tails to black sweatpants. Of course, what they were wearing wasn’t nearly as important as what they were playing, and since they played my one of my favorites–Scarlatti–well, I was in heaven.

Portland Baptist is a lovely, intimate setting for baroque, with nice acoustics, a lot of acanthus carvings in the plaster and wonderfully decorated organ pipes. PBO director Monica Huggett–a renowned violinist and concertmaster in her own right–fit the music to the setting well (and incidentally had a lot of fun with the violin solo in Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major).

Their regular mezzo, Angela Niederloh, did a wonderful job but was probably overshadowed by the guest for the evening, contratenor Matthew White. A contratenor–they called it countertenor last night–is a unique beast outside of baroque music but becoming more popular since the use of castrati is kinda frowned on these days. Put simply, he’s a male alto, sometimes a falsetto. White’s voice was a tad light on power (which Niederloh more than made up for) but absolutely gorgeous.

They did one of my favorites in duet–Scarlatti’s Salve Regina–and I was very sorry when it ended. I gotta admit, though, that the audience was probably my favorite part of the evening. Baroque music lovers are an odd lot–this one had an average age of well, far more than 60, and a total lack of affectation or snobbishness.

That’s one of the things I like about “vertical” audiences. Nobody’s looking to show off their money or “cultchah,” or dragged here by a determined spouse. They’re simply here to enjoy, and I think are much nicer people as a result.

PBO is composed of violins, violas, violoncello, contrabass and a harpsichord, pretty much the usual, but they’ve also included an archlute player whose instrument is taller than the musician. (you can see him in the left third of this picture, which I snapped with my Treo during the performance) It’s an interesting contrast to modern instruments (and modern technology, for that matter).

But the technology was there. PBO sold (and autographed) CDs after the event, and apparently are making use of other forms of technology as well. Two fellows behind me were discussing some new orchestrations under rehearsal, and one expressed disappointment at missing the latest session. “Oh don’t worry,” replied his partner, “We’ve uploaded it to YouTube. You won’t miss a thing.”

Share on Facebook