Midnight Viols – Gotham Early Music Scene (10/23/25)

England’s Glory: Country Dances, Songs and Consorts of the Golden Age 

Caroline Nicolas ~ treble viol; Charlie Reed & Lisa Terry ~ tenor viol; Patricia Neely & Sarah Stone ~ bass viol; Gene Murrow ~ concertina & recorders; Ruth Cunningham ~ voice, flute & recorders  

English Country Dances – Musical Arrangements by Marshall Barron from The Dancing Master, John Playford
Indian Queen (1701) ~ Beggar Boy (1651) ~ Beaux of Oak Hill – Traditional  

Fantasia a 6, No. 2 – William Byrd (1540‒1623) 

Come Again – John Dowland (1563‒1626)  

Fantasia a 6, No. 2 – Orlando Gibbons (1583‒1625)  

From Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short Aeirs – (1599) Anthony Holborne (ca.1550‒1602)
The Cradle ~ The Honie-suckle ~ The Widowes myte  

Pavan Passamezzo a 6 – Peter Philips (1560‒1628)  

Awake Sweet Love – John Dowland

English Ballads and Country Dances – John Playford
Greensleeves ~ Greensleeves and Yellow Lace (1721); Broom of the Cowdenknows ~ Broom, the Bonny, Bonny Broom (1651); The Joviall Broom Man ~ Jamaica (1670)

What is a viol? At this concert, I learned that it is a viola da gamba, a six-stringed, bowed instrument with frets on the fingerboard; hence, it is in the guitar family, not the cello family, even though it is played vertically, like a cello.

On to the music. First up was a set of three dances. The first was jolly and included the concertina and a recorder. The concertina is a free-reed and bellows instrument similar to, but smaller than, an accordion and plays in the range of the violin. The second dance was slightly subdued and had a flute introduction, then all five viols joined in. The third dance had two recorders, five viols, and it was slightly sprightly. 

The Byrd Fantasia seemed strophic and fugue-like, sort of like an instrumental song. The first Dowland piece, Come Again, was very familiar to me, and was scored for viols (two or three, I couldn’t see the hands of some of the viol players) and soprano. Vocal verse, instrumental repeat, second vocal verse, instrumental repeat with a bit of vocals added to round out the piece. 

The Gibbons Fantasia had very dense writing for the viols, richly textured, and then had the concertina join in. The Holborne was another set of three dances—a somber, but not a downer, Pavan for four viols and concertina, then an Almain that was jaunty and dance-like in a sedate way, with a recorder added into the mix, while the third was a Galliard that was also jaunty with interesting shifting rhythms. 

The Pavan Passamezzo a 6 was essentially several sections that were all tied together by a repetitive bass line. The bass line was played solo before the piece as a demo, but with the richly textured writing for the five viols, I wasn’t as aware of the bass line as I thought I would be. 

Awake Sweet Love (Dowland) was scored for soprano and four viols and was sweet and almost simple, though not truly simple. 

The last piece looked like six pieces but wasn’t. It was a set of three songs, each in two parts. Each tune was introduced, and then the piece that followed was based on its preceding tune. For instance, Greensleeves was performed by the soprano and a single viol; Greensleeves and Yellow Lace began with concertina with two viols and then the other viols joined in. The same format was followed for the Broom pair of songs, though the first tune was not familiar to me. The final pair started with soprano, concertina and three viols. The second version was tutti—jolly and full bodied, with a recorder added to the fun. It was a great ending to the concert.   

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I hope to add a photo; that may need to wait for my Facebook posts.

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.

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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. 

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Gotham Early Music Scene Opening Concert 2025–2026 Season (9/18/25)

Philippe Leroy, harpsichord
Music of Froberger, J.S. Bach & W.F. Bach  

Allemande faitte sur le subjet d’un chemin montaigneux la quelle se joüe à discrétion – Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667)

Partite Auff die Maÿerin
Prima Partita ~ Seconda Partita ~ Terza Partita ~ Quarta Partita ~ Sexta Partita – Crommatica ~ Courante – sopra Maÿerin ~ Double ~ Saraband – sopra Maÿerin  

Concerto nach Italiænischen Gusto [Italian Concerto], BWV 971 – J.S. Bach (1685–1750)
[Without tempo indication] ~ Andante ~ Presto 

Four Polonaises – W.F. Bach (1710–1784)
E minor – Andante – Falck 12, No. 8
C Major – Allegretto – Falck 12, No. 1
F minor – Adagio – Falck 12, No. 10
D Major – Allegretto – Falck 12, No. 3

A little about the harpsichord. I sat where I could see the keyboard, and there were two of them. He played the main keyboard and switched to the second one (slightly softer sound—different set of strings?). At one point, he must have used a coupler, a device that connects the two keyboards together, since he was playing the main keyboard, but the keys were also going down on the second one as well. It was pretty cool to see. As to the Bach boys, J.S. is Johann Sebastian (as I'm sure most of you know) while W.F. is Wilhelm Friedemann (Sebastian's second child but first son; don't ask about the rest of the children).

The first Froberger piece was gentle and slow, but a little brighter on the second keyboard, though still at a slow tempo. The word that came to mind was contemplative. The second piece was livelier, but just a bit. It was difficult to determine where the seven movements started and ended. The writing was richer and more dense, probably because the coupler was used a few times.

The J.S. Bach was very familiar to me from hearing it on the radio, where the recordings I've heard are on piano. This was my first time hearing it live and my first time hearing it on a harpsichord. The opening movement was brisk and bright, and I felt as if I was greeting an old friend. It was joyful. (There was a minor flub that I think was due to the foot pedal used to turn pages on the electronic score. Ask, if you're interested.) The second movement was slow and wistful, almost leaning toward somber. The third was back to bright, with fleet-fingered phrases—presto, indeed. Alas, another score flub resulted in him beginning the movement a second time. This was also a first for me, but it ended well.

F.W. Bach was next. The first Polonaise was slow and gentle, and it sounded to me as though there were brief hesitations built into the score, but that could be part of the artist's interpretation. The second was quick and seemed more like a dance, while the third was slow and pretty though it did go on for a while. The harpsichordist made some type of adjustment to the instrument that sounded like a way to increase the volume, making it sound almost like a small organ. The fourth Polonaise was also bright and playful. I was hard pressed to decide whether the third or fourth was my favorite; the edge went to the third.

An encore (not announced) was played. It was gentle, almost like a bookend to the first Froberger piece—contemplative. A nice way to end the concert.

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Open Stages (9/13/25)

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music

This was more of a "happening" (yes, I'm dating myself) than a concert per se. Open Stages is Brooklyn Conservatory of Music's way of bringing music to the people. This was a mini-street fair with musical performances on the stoop of a Brooklyn townhouse. There were hot dogs and hamburgers (free) with water/sodas/chips. There was a bouncy castle. There were soccer balls and skateboards. Oh, did I mention there were kids?

The MTA gave me convoluted directions, but I eventually found Rutland Road. Of course, I was early because I always build in time for getting lost. While eating my hot dog, I chit-chatted with a gal who flew in from San Diego to surprise her family because her grandchildren would be performing. Hi, Ellen!

Um, 'Meister, let's get to the concert? The afternoon started with a jazz trio—sax, electric guitar, drums—playing On the Sunny Side of the Street. After a brief equipment boo-boo, the trio played another jazzy number that I did not recognize, with a nice Latin flavor. After a third trio number, the drummer was replaced by a student drummer. I'm not good with ages, though he was probably about seven. He acquitted himself very well. A second guest drummer (nine?) replaced him and also did a great job. Then the drum teacher joined the second guest drummer for two drum duets.

Next on the program were two young cellists who are part of the Suzuki program at BCoM. I don't know a lot about the Suzuki method of string teaching, but it was interesting to see two different sized miniaturized cellos. Each cellist played two brief solos and then the two brothers played a duet. The cellists were my new friend Ellen's grandchildren.

Following that was a young lady playing the piano and singing It's a Better Place Since You Came Along. Indeed, with these programs for young music students it is a better place. And Ellen even pointed me to my beloved Q train for an easy ride home.

I got on the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music's mailing list after joining them for caroling in December 2024. There's a lot to explore out there.

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Orchestra of St. Luke's: A Sunset Celebration (9/3/25)

This was interesting. It took place in Bella Abzug Park, a place I'd never been to. The performers were from three generations: Youth Orchestra, Grad students from Mannes School of Music and Manhattan School of Music, and OSL players. I heard, in order, the grad school woodwind quintet, the OSL players brass quintet, and the youth orchestra.

The woodwind quintet consisted of flute, oboe, bassoon, French horn, and clarinet. Pay no attention to the fact that the flute is metal and so is the horn—just go with the flow. They played six pieces, but I don't know what they were. There was no running order for the event other than a QR code. I have no idea whether the QR code listed the pieces and composers. As most woodwind quintet pieces are bubbly to some extent, all six pieces were bubbly. The first piece was jolly though it also had a few subdued phrases. There was a good mix of phrases, a good mix of volumes, and a gentle ending. The second was bubbly while the third had subdued bubbling. The fourth had a calm opening and then the tempo picked up, quicker but not frantic. The fifth was in a slower, gentle tempo that was sort of a relaxed dance. The sixth opened with a brief bassoon solo, then it was quickly tutti (all five playing together), with relatively perky bubbling. I left early since the first set started at 4:00-ish, and the next group I wanted to hear started at 4:30.

Hello, brass quintet! The five here were French horn, trombone, tuba (the regular kind, not a Sousaphone), and two trumpets. The first piece sounded like a fanfare and was pretty modern. After they finished, it was announced that it was a fanfare written by Paul Dukas. My ear was pretty good. Some pieces were announced while some weren't. Next up was Puttin' on the Ritz. My notes say—pure fun! The third was a jazz tune that I didn't recognize, upbeat, with an almost ragtime feel. A Gershwin medley followed consisting of Fascinatin' Rhythm, Summertime, and I Got Rhythm. I was tempted to sing out like Merman but I restrained myself. West Side Story's Maria was next, and it opened with a horn/trombone duet, then tutti, then closed out with a lovely horn to finish. It was paired with Tonight—trumpet, horn, trombone to open, then tutti. It was fairly straightforward with a bright button ending. Not quite a medley, I Feel Pretty closed out the grouping in a bright and fun fashion. Mississippi Rag, written by William Krell, began with a short tuba solo and then they all joined in. It had a definite ragtime feel and format. Gershwin's Love Is Here to Stay was given a gentle treatment and arrangement, then going up tempo for the repeat, before returning to a gentle, jazzy ending. (Side note: I always thought the title was Our Love Is Here to Stay. Wikipedia disabused me of that. I also include this from Wikipedia as I found it interesting: "Love Is Here to Stay" was the last musical composition George Gershwin completed before his death on July 11, 1937. Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics after George's death as a tribute to his brother. Originally titled "It's Here to Stay" and then "Our Love Is Here to Stay," the song was finally published as "Love Is Here to Stay.") Tiger Rag, by anonymous? it has a bit of a checkered history, was a fairly typical rag, bright and brisk. A Dixieland one-step closed out the set, with built-in humor in the arrangement—think slide trombone with the trumpets gettin' in on the slidin'.

The youth orchestra grouping began with two movements of a Mozart string quartet (with one of the mentors playing viola). In the outdoor setting, it was a little difficult to hear. The whole group played Bruno Mars (I think) followed by the first movement of Eine kleine Nachtmusik. I packed it in after that. But the afternoon/evening was a lot of fun, and Puttin' on the Ritz was my hands-down favorite.

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Broadway by the Boardwalk at Hudson River Park (8/11/25)

 Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal

These two guys put on a great show and there was quite a crowd on hand for this final concert in a summer series. Having the show Rent as part of each performer's history, it featured in parts of the program. Not having ever seen/heard Rent, some of that was lost on me. But they have performed this style of a set over the past several years and it came off very well Monday evening.

Without a printed program, I can't really tell you what songs were performed and which vocalist sang solo in the solos. The set opened with (I think) If It Makes You Happy. This was followed by a song from Spring Awakening (another show I've never seen/heard). The third incorporated "blah-blah-blah" (literally) and "totally fucked" as lyrics. The latter might actually be the title.

Some Rent trivia followed, with one of the guys saying that he always had a problem remembering the lyrics to One Song Glory. So, he taped the lyrics on orange poster cards to the top of a desk, and the blocking was created so that he could get back to the desk periodically. That worked fine when the show played Off Broadway, but when the show transferred to Broadway, the stage manager said that the orange cards could be seen from the balcony, so they had to go. I think he got all the lyrics right Monday night.

Next up was a Peter Gabriel song I didn't know, followed by a Radiohead song I didn't know. Four more songs I didn't know were next, a combination of solos and duets. One of the vocalists also played guitar, and backup included electric guitar and keyboard.

As announced from the stage (and their banter was very easygoing and easy to follow), Billy Joel's I've Loved These Days was next, then David Bowie's Starman.

Living in America followed, and the concert closed out with Seasons of Love (Five thousand-twenty-five ... even I sort-of knew that one!) [“Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred”] and the crowd loved it. Am I glad I went? Yes. Was it my cup of tea? Not exactly. But it was a real joy seeing so many people enjoying live music. And the crowd knew a lot more of the songs than I did. Kudos to BrotherMeister for letting me know about the concert.

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