Les goûts réunis – luscious sonorities from the MBO

Melbourne Baroque Orchestra | Les goûts réunis

October 13, 2024, Church of All Nations, Carlton, VIC

with soloists Tim Willis, violin, and Adam Masters, oboe

Considering the soloists for this concert, it was virtually a given that J. S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin would feature. So it did, as the penultimate item, in a very vital and assured performance.  But, as Tim Willis explained, the program was also fashioned to place that and the other Bach item – the Orchestral Suite No. 3 – in the context of the music from across Europe which the young Bach was influenced by, and even sought out and performed himself.  He knew a harpsichord arrangement of Marais’ Overture to Alcide, a splendid model of the French overture, which received an exemplary performance here (though it was a pity time did not allow for repeats).  The rhythmic subtleties of French Baroque music were observed but not exaggerated.  There was one person who had the last word on French style, and that was Louis XIV – and he liked the next piece “for his suppers” by Delalande very much.  It brought out some luscious sonorities from the MBO, aided by the sympathetic acoustics.

With Telemann’s Concerto à 6 (or Double Violin Concerto) we came closer to home for J. S. Bach (he played violin in it himself), though it shows foreign influences from the Italian Sonata da Chiesa, especially in the elegantly played opening Grave, and possibly Polish folk music.  There seemed to be hints of later works by Bach, his own Double Concerto, and in the Largo, Brandenburg Concerto No 6.  Marcello’s Oboe Concerto was another predictable but welcome programming choice, since it first came to prominence because of Bach’s exquisitely ornamented keyboard arrangement.  The performance left nothing to be desired, the orchestra providing a secure support to Adam Masters’ superlative playing.  Baroque oboes and oboists tend to be quite individual in tone (in a good way); Masters’ tone is noticeably full-bodied, but very centred and well controlled.

After a brief interval came the Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3, in the reduced (but possibly original) scoring for strings plus continuo. This allowed for a very sprightly rendition, at the opposite end of the scale from the ponderous performances which used to be the norm for this work. The famous Air was clean and unsentimental, but no less touching for that. As mentioned above, the Concerto for Oboe and Violin which followed lived up to the high expectations which had been set.  Bach treats the two solo instruments so idiomatically that he pretty much tells the players what they must do, and Willis and Masters delivered to perfection.  The final offering dated from two years before J. S. Bach was born, the Chaconne from Lully’s 1683 opera Phaëton.  A popular piece in its own time, it was a reminder of how influential Lully was, and yet inimitable. The performance had the compelling flow that Lully’s chaconnes demand, but also the deftness of touch for what was also a dance.

As usual, the MBO’s manner was unpretentious and welcoming; it had the feel of an afternoon of convivial music-making, but of an extremely high standard.

Guest Reviewer: Richard Excell

Richard Excell is a retired librarian (formerly Rare Music Cataloguer at the University of Melbourne), musicologist and player of vielles, rebec and gemshorn. He is a longtime member of the medieval ensemble Acord, and researches many of their concerts. Together with his wife Bev he is a collector of early editions and manuscripts, with a focus on choral music.