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| Zephiro, from left Michael Jarvis, Paul Luchkow, Arthur Neele , Natalie Mackie & an Enzo Ferrari |
On Thursday night I braved a chronic cough (kept at bay with lemon-flavoured Fishermen’s Friends) to attend the inaugural performance of Vancouver’s brand new small baroque group, Zephiro. The concert was held at the intimate room of the museum of the Vancouver Italian Cultural Institute on Slocan Street. Since I was on a budget I did not dine at La Piazza Dario Ristorante before the concert as my friends the Bakers did.
ZEPHYROS (or Zephyrus) was the god of the west
wind, one of the four directional Anemoi (Wind-Gods). He was also the god of
spring, husband of Khloris (Greenery), and father of Karpos (Fruit).
Ζεφυρος (Greek) - Zephyros
(transliteration) - Zephyrus, Favonius (Latin name) - West Wind (translation into English).
Museum Collection: Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, Massachusetts,
USA
Catalogue No.: Boston
95.31
Beazley Archive No.:
205271
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Shape: Kylix
Painter: Signed by
Douris
Date: ca 490 - 480 BC
Period: Late Archaic
Two figures
representing either Zephyros, the winged god of the west wind, holding his
lover Hyakinthos in a close embrace; or an allegorical depiction of Love (Eros)
desiring and seizing the beauty of youth.
The group Zephiro is made up of Paul
Luchkow and Arthur Neele on baroque violins, Natalie Mackie, viola da gamba and
Michael Jarvis on harpsichord.
I know and I am friends with all but the
new member, the Dutch gentleman Arthur Neele who is a compact violinist with
a catchy smile and has an imposing knowledge of musical history especially of the
Baroque period.
I sat front row and the performers where a
mere two meters away. It doesn’t take too much imagination to make believe that
Zephiro was playing just for me inside my living room and that I was an Italian count. This is baroque music at
its most intimate which seems to be something almost unique to our city and
which thankfully for me (but not for the financially under-rewarded baroque
musicians of Vancouver) gives me the privilege of sitting close and knowing the
musicians and best of all I can leave my binoculars at home.
The concert featured Italian composers of
the 18th century but also quite a few who where at their best in the
earlier 17th century. I am no music expert but I can tell you that
the music of the 17th century was not as set down to ready rules as
that of the 18th century. These composers of what some call the
Fantastic Period experimented with the use of odd/dissonant notes (I waited and
was not disappointed with the last work of the first part of the concert, Biagio
Marini’s (1594-1663) Sonata #13 “Senza Cadenza”. On of my baroque friends,
virtuoso violinst Marc Destrubé
calls them blue notes. There were plenty of these in Marini.
The first part also featured
a harpsichord solo. I used to hate the instrument as a solo instrument, but
thanks to Michael Jarvis and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra’s Alexander Weimann I am warming up to it quickly. The second part had a lovely Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) Canzona for solo bass but played by both Jarvis and Mackie,.The last time I had heard Frescobaldi played in a concert was back in Mexico City in 1963.
Anybody who loves the
baroque will always anticipate with pleasure any music of Arcangelo Corelli. There were
two sonatas featured on Thursday night. The first, Sonata IV Opus 4 was, for me just a warm-up
preparation for the one moment of the night and this was Sonata III Opus 5 for
violin and continuo. I am sure that soloist Paul Luchkow must have spent lots
of money on baby sitters for his two young sons (or bribed his viola-playing
wife) to practice this most beautiful (and most difficult, but then what would
I know?) of all of Corelli’s sonatas.
If that was not enough
to please me for a long time Zephiro finished with a Ciaccona by one of the few
Italian composers whose surname does not end in i, Tarquinio Merula (1594-1665).
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| The Oxford Junior Companion to Music |
While I am no music
expert I know a bass ground when I hear one. My fave used to be (until Thursday
night, that is) the very famous La Folia made justly famous in by Corelli in his
Opus 5 Sonata No. 12 in D minor “La Folia”. I have written in these parts
before that La Folia was sort of the 17th and 18th century’s
version of Richard Berry’s Louie Louie. Everybody and his mother (but not Corelli’s)
wrote some sort of variation or version.
Tarquino Merula’s Ciaccona,
a true ground (see picture above), blew me away in Zephiro’s version. In spite of my virtuoso clapping
the group did not come back to play it again.
This was unfortunate as
I had the melody in my head all the way home. I told my wife that I was going to
see if I could find it in YouTube. I told her the chances were slim.
I was wrong. There have to be more than 20 versions played by small groups, large groups, with pizzicato violin, with mandolins, with a trumpet, with recorders. There are perhaps more versions of this lovely ground than those of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (including the one by Miles Davis). But then I did not take my chances to count all the Louie Louies or La Folia.
I was wrong. There have to be more than 20 versions played by small groups, large groups, with pizzicato violin, with mandolins, with a trumpet, with recorders. There are perhaps more versions of this lovely ground than those of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (including the one by Miles Davis). But then I did not take my chances to count all the Louie Louies or La Folia.
There is still time
for anybody who just might be moved by my enthusiasm to catch this group this
Saturday at
Le Marché St.
George
4393 St. George at the corner of East
28th.at 7.00pm.Meanwhile for anybody who wants to spend the rest of the night, as I am, listening to various versions of Merula's Ciaconna here are a few:
Hesperion XXI with Jordi Savall
Il Jardino Armonico
Vespres d'Anardí
with Jordi Savall and sung by Monserrat Figueras , not the Ciaconna but beautiful.
Contrasto Armonico with unusual pizzicato violin