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Music

Rachel Podger and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Musica Viva) ★★★★

by •
ABR Arts • 15 November 2017
Music

Rachel Podger and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Musica Viva) ★★★★

by •
ABR Arts • 15 November 2017

The year of J.S. Bach’s death, 1750, is usually considered to mark the end of the Baroque era in music. It only makes sense that the Classical period should start directly thereafter. But is that really so?

Art and its history does not necessarily follow clear borderlines, and compositions written around the middle of the eighteenth century may not fit comfortably behind these well-known labels. Traditional Baroque techniques are still practised in this fascinating and delightfully varied musical era, while, at the same time, Bach’s own composer sons, Luigi Boccherini, Giovanni Pergolesi, and others, broke new paths as they experimented with new forms, genres, styles, and instruments. Nobody talked about the ‘Classical era’ just yet; but these innovative approaches had expressive names. For example, the the character of pieces may have been referred to as ‘galant’ or ‘empfindsam’ (or sensitive). They adapted a courtly style in some places or were influenced elsewhere by the SturmundDrang (or storm and drive), a borrowed term from the then popular German literary style.

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Zoltán Szabó

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist. Having migrated from his native Hungary to Australia in 1985, he worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney until 1991, when he became Principal Cello with Opera Australia. In 2017, he was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). Currently, he is teaching music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Leave a comment
Zoltán Szabó

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist. Having migrated from his native Hungary to Australia in 1985, he worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney until 1991, when he became Principal Cello with Opera Australia. In 2017, he was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). Currently, he is teaching music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

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Comments (2)

  • Thank you for your thoughts, Brian, much appreciated. I agree with most of them, but here are some comments. I made a point of discussing Podger's 'interaction' with the audience in the review because I did not find it subtle at all. And, in my opinion, it became a diversion from the enjoyment of the music.

    What may have been common practice a few centuries ago, has changed. Thank goodness, otherwise, our audiences would also eat, drink and make bodily noises during performances! Those performances would have had a certain atmosphere (see 'Shakespeare In Love'), but in our days, we pay more attention and sit quietly as a sign of respect towards the artist's hard work and the performance.

    Finally, you like it or not, the fourth wall is there, in theatre, ballet, opera, concert hall - everywhere. It does fulfill a purpose - one with which I happen to agree - and in this concert, its convention was ignored for no obvious or justifiable reason.
    Posted by Zoltán Szabó
    20 November 2017
  • I attended the first of the Melbourne performances of this concert. Here too Podger subtly interacted with the audience along the lines of what is described here, in particular during the second of the Mozart concertos. But I welcome such gestures. The Debussy String Quartet earlier this year did it even more so. I suspect that it is also quite 'authentic'. The economics of professional music-making in Mozart’s Europe were such that performers (who were often also composers) had to make sure that their audiences had a good time. Concert-goers routinely drank and ate during concerts and no doubt talked as well. So, any wall between the performers and audiences would have been very thin and I think performers would have worked hard to engage their listeners, probably much more than Podger does. It’s time we moved away from music performance as purely cerebral, desiccated, and devoid of bodily communication between performers and audiences. It would make performances of classical music more engaging, accessible, and successful.
    Posted by Brian Long
    16 November 2017

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