This one came about in a strange fashion. When I was at Songbook recently, one of the pieces incorporated a string quartet. When the string players were asked (the host always asks the performers) what they were up to, the cellist, Ben Larsen, said that he was busy with the running of Concerts on the Slope. That sounded familiar to me, so I checked out their website and, lo and behold, this concert popped up, so I decided to check it out. The Slope involved is Park Slope in Brooklyn, and the concerts take place (for the most part) in St. John’s Episcopal Church, one more new venue for me. The bassoonists were Joey Lavarias, Frank Morelli, Jorge Pacheco, Blair Shepperd, and Jacob Wellman.
Mr. Morelli teaches at the Juilliard School, and the other four are his students.
Highlights of the concert included a clever entrance—all five marching in to Marche funèbre d’une marionette, by Charles Gounod (1818–1893). For those of us of an age, it was instantly recognizable as the opening theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, from the 1950s and ’60s. Almost all of the music was presented in arrangements, but I’m not going to bother with naming names (or commenting on each work, for that matter). Two J.S. Bach (1685–1750) pieces followed—Fugue in c, BWV 537 and Air from 3rd Orchestral Suite in D, BWV 1068. The first, for the quintet, was nice, if a little bit muddy. I got most of the fugal entries but the internal themes sort of got lost. The second, for the student quartet, had a prominent theme accompanied by nicely done harmonies, including a bit of a jazz riff in one of the repeats.
The next piece, Thunder and Blazes, by Julius Fučik (1872–1916), would be recognized by all of you. Think of going to a circus and hearing the band play the always popular circus march—YA-da-dadada-YA-da-da-da—got it? This was for the quintet again, with each player at the forefront with different themes, from time to time. A Cantilena by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) didn’t quite cut it for me, though it obviously hits the spot for Mr. Morelli, in that he did the arrangement himself for solo bassoon and bassoon quartet and has recorded it at least once.
“Le Phénix,” by Michele Corrette (1707–1795), was the only piece that was not an arrangement, essentially a concerto for bassoon and continuo. Mr. Morelli played the continuo part for all three of the movements, with the solo part taken by three different students, while the other students acted as a small bassoon orchestra. My brief notes included (i) bright and energetic, (ii) chorale-style feeling to the opening, and (iii) more jaunty than the first movement, if a little long-winded (no pun intended).
After intermission, three arias from The Barber of Seville, Giacchino Rossini (1792–1868) followed. They also didn’t quite cut it for me. Lascia ch’io pianga, from Rinaldo, George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), fared a little better, with a good choral/organ sound that was simple yet effective in what was really a wonderful arrangement. A pseudo-medley from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), consisting of Tonight, Maria, America, and Somewhere, was really quite pleasant. Alas, the same could not be said for
Mr. Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, where I found the scoring to be a little too muddy, again, for my taste. Having many of the individual tunes/phrases in the lower range of the bassoons made them difficult to distinguish.
That said, I liked bassoon quartets and quintets far better than the concert looked on paper. And I’ll probably go back to the Slope again. If you go, while it’s listed as a free concert, they also have a basket for a free-will offering and, as mentioned from the front of the church during intermission, all of the collected funds go directly to the performers. It seems like a bit of a guilt trip to me, and while I didn’t contribute on Sunday, I probably will in the future.
ConcertMeister
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