Sun 3/8
Apollo’s Fire, under the direction of Alan Choo, showed a Sunday afternoon crowd why 17th- and 18th-century music by Lully, Leclair, Rameau and others can still set hearts alive. The Sun King (aka King Louis XIV) seems to have enjoyed dressing up and dancing, and so commissioned elegant music to that end.
Simple yet clever staging, sonorous period instruments, and the excellent musicianship Apollo’s Fire has conditioned us to expect, created a “magical” transport from Rocky River Presbyterian Church to Versailles, the Sun King’s elegant country estate.
Just before the concert began, Alan Choo (doubling as director and violinist) seemed immersed in tuning and chatting with others onstage. Suddenly we heard loud authoritative thumps coming from the back of the hall.
All (Choo included) turned to see a caped figure, clad entirely in black, striding toward the stage, pounding his staff rhythmically on the floor as he advanced.
Yes, it was a reincarnation of composer-conductor Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) come to keep time for the ensemble’s energetic (seemingly fear-driven) “Marche pour la Ceremonie des Turcs” from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. When the piece ended, the figure slipped away. (Sometime later, percussionist Anthony Taddeo appeared onstage—could that be a clue?
Two courtly Lully dance pieces (“Passacaille” from Armide and “Canarie” from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) followed. But before the ensemble moved on to complete the program’s first half, Choo recounted the famous story of poor conductor/composer Lully who managed to kill himself (via gangrene in an age without antibiotics) after he stomped his foot too hard with the above-cited time-marking staff.
The program became considerably more festive as instrumentalists celebrated flowing melodic patterns for courtly dances as found in Michel-Richard de Lalande’s Les fontaines de Versailles. Following that, as violin soloist, Choo emphasized the elegant whimsy embedded in Jean-Marie Leclair’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 No. 5.
The second half of the program brought three more (now) seldom-heard French classics to the stage. Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Concert pour 4 parties de violes with Choo and Susanna Perry Gilmore (violins), Nicole Divall (viola), René Schiffer (cello), and Williams Simms and Brandon Acker, plucked instruments. Schiffer’s opening solo in the Prelude showed a tender, personal side to court music—it’s not all fun and games in royal courts.
Next it was time to remember that stories about exotic new worlds also amused the court. And so, opera was popular, especially ones that featured elaborate costumes featuring feathers and bright beads. Apollo’s Fire, while lacking operatic garb, paid tribute to opera with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Suite from his opera Les Indes Galantes. Kathie Stewart and Amy Guitry (flutes), Kathryn Montoya and Gaia Saetermoe-Howard (oboes), and percussionist Anthony Taddeo used classic instruments to combine the opera’s bird-like tones and drum beats to give courtly audiences a sanitized, yet regal, version of life in a wild new world.
The concert ended with Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Caractères de la Danse (c. 1715). As Choo accurately said when introducing the piece, it combined “fast French dances” for which we should “buckle up.” Courante, menuet, bourée, sarabande, gigue, gavotte and more—a fun mix presented, as we were warned, in only nine minutes..
Bottom Line: Versailles? Yes, please! In sum, we were dazzled and happily dancing as we left the auditorium. And yes, French Baroque is indeed a treat, as is being in the “home territory” of Apollo’s Fire. The Grammy-winning Baroque orchestra is headed to London with performances of O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths after playing it first in Ohio, New York and Greater Chicago.
Side Note: Ah, Versailles. Just a “little getaway cabin” funded by Louis XIV so the court could avoid Paris. (Politics, you know, requires an escape, whether Martha’s Vineyard or Mar-a-Lago.) Just how vast was it? Compare it to Cleveland’s University Circle times six and you’re close. Want to be distracted? Here’s a link to Versailles so you can judge for yourself.