Mexamorphosis (10/9/25)

Chamber 

Guadalupe Peraza ~ director, mezzo-soprano; Sinuhe Padilla-Isunza ~ jarana, voice, percussion & dance; Jae Lee ~ harpsichord; Baba Moussa ~ talking drum; Hsei-Mei Tracy Chang ~ soprano; Papa Classima ~ voice   

Les Barricades mystérieuses from Second Livre de pièces de clavecin, Sixième Ordre – François Couperin (1668‒1733)
El Buscapiés – Traditional Mexican, Son Jarocho (Veracruz)  

Così mi disprezzate (Aria di passacaglia) – Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583‒1643)
Las poblanas – Traditional, Son Jarocho 

Jarabi (Love) – Traditional, West African  

Accenti Queruli – Giovanni Felice Sances (ca. 1600–1679) 

Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti, SV 251 – Claudio Monteverdi (1567‒1643)
Guacamalla – Traditional, Son Jarocho 

This was another Gotham Early Music Scene concert.

First things first, what is a jarana? I won't saddle you down with a lot of technical info, but it's similar to a guitar, with eight strings, and a complicated layout of those strings. What is a talking drum? A West African hourglass-shaped drum that is said to mimic human speech. I did not experience the simulation of human speech. What is Son Jarocho? It is a style of Mexican folk music.

While I enjoyed the concert, the application of the Son Jarocho style of playing to François Couperin, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Felice Sances, and Claudio Monteverdi made everything sound a lot like the same thing over and over. Lots of rhythmic strumming, harpsichord present but usually overpowered, and the mezzo-soprano and the male vocalist doing pretty much the same thing over and over. That said, the mezzo-soprano did some operatic-style vocalizing in the Frescobaldi, as did the soprano in the Monteverdi. But since those pieces were often grouped with the folk-style pieces, and some of the folk-style playing was included in the pieces that preceded, the effect was a lot of the same stuff we just heard.

Jarabi (Traditional West African) had a little more energy and the vocalist was quite charismatic. But it ended in the "same stuff" category, even with the addition of two different styles of hand-held drums.

The jarana player also added percussion a few times and added a bit of rhythmic flamenco-style dancing. In Guacamalla, all six of the performers seemed to be enacting a jam session in the Traditional Son Jarocho style. They were then joined by four other instrumentalists (I think I saw a rebec – a round-backed pseudo-violin, and three jarana players – apparently the jarana comes in various sizes). It was a great finale.

I doubt that I would seek this group out again, though. They did what they do; they knew what they were doing; it was all too similar for my taste.

ConcertMeister

Gotham Early Music Scene (10/2/25)

Edson Scheid, violin
J.S. Bach’s Unaccompanied Violin

Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685‒1750) 
Adagio
Fuga (Allegro)
Siciliana Presto  

Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002
Allemanda; Double
Corrente; Double (Presto)
Sarabande; Double
Tempo di Borea; Double 

Interesting info from the violinist. The Sonata No. 1 was written in 1720. The first performance was in 1840, with piano accompaniment written and played by Felix Mendelssohn. The first recording, as a solo work, was in 1933, by Yehudi Menuhin. 

The first movement of the sonata was tuneful in a slightly sad way. It was mostly a single line, though there were some double stops. That’s where the violinist plays two strings at the same time, creating a two-toned chord. For the record, there were no electronic score problems since he played both pieces from memory. The second movement was livelier and fuller, with the opening motif repeated fairly often but in varied ways. More on that later. It was the longest of the four movements. The third was slower and lovely while the fourth was off to the races, fiery and fast-fingered. 

A note about the doubles in the partita. Also as announced by the violinist, the partita is really four movements. The double portion is the previous movement played a second time with the notes in a different style/order. Are you confused yet? I was.

The Allamanda was energetic in a subdued way, possibly an effect of the B minor key. The double (repeat) was not really clear to me. The Corrente was similar to the first movement, though more fluid—lots of running notes. I liked it a lot. Just as I was writing 'too long?' the movement ended. So the answer was no. The double was a lot faster, a tour de force, (Presto) indeed! The Sarabande was slower and somewhat fuller. The word thoughtful came to mind. The last movement was Tempo di Borea, which sort of stumped me.

I recognized the first three movements as dance names (though they didn’t really strike me as dance-like). It turns out that Borea is a synonym for Gigue, so that made sense. It was more sprightly than the Sarabande, and somewhat cheerful, in a minor-key way. The double for the final movement was much livelier, and a great way to end the concert. 

ConcertMeister