The Devil Gets His Due

by

Michael Carter

I distinctly remember when Il Giardino Armonico’s recording of Vivaldi’s most popular concertos, Le Quatro Stagione, hit the street in 1994, that I was puzzled by the cover of the CD. For those of you who haven’t seen it or don’t own it, it is an artist’s rendering of a bullet shattering the body of a violin. Once I placed the CD in my player and pressed the start button on my remote control, it didn’t take more than—as the Germans say—eine Augenblick­ for me to understand the meaning of the cover, for the recording revealed a wholly new and eventually controversial approach to Baroque performance practice, one that outstripped the once-novel Concentus Musicus Wien recording of the same quartet of concertos.

The recording continues to ignite debate and controversy, both in the community of musicologists as well as with informed lovers of the Baroque. Each time I play one of the concertos on my radio broadcasts, it never fails to spark at least one call from a listener inquiring as to the catalog number.

Like it or not, Giovanni Antonini’s ensemble—for the sake of brevity, I’ll refer to it hereinafter as IGA—has forced us to reexamine the way we view or hear Baroque music. As the period instruments movement set Baroque music on its heels when it began to surface a half century ago, IGA has turned the period instruments movement on its ear and with subsequent releases, has almost tossed out the baby with the bathwater.

I confess to not owning all of the IGA CDs, but in addition to that initial Vivaldi release mentioned in the previous paragraph, I do have their disc of Vivaldi arias with the beautiful and brilliantly gifted Cecilia Bartoli and their latest effort, La Casa del Diavolo for the French label Naïve Classique, distributed in the United States by Naxos of America.

When the opportunity to interview IGA’s founding father, Giovanni Antonini, arose this spring past, I was eager to sign on for the project. We finally touched base in early May following one of the groups many tours and exchanged conversation and ideas through interpreter Laura Crippa.

MC: “Why was IGA founded and when it progressed from concept to reality, what characteristics made it one of a kind?”

GA: “We began as a small group in 1985 (recorder, cello, and basso continuo) and now we can muster as many as 30 performers if needed. Initially, though, we made music without thinking about the future. We knew that we would have to carve our own niche, since an Italian early music ensemble was at that time, something new. Regarding our individuality, apart from the interpretative approach, we are differentiated from other period instrument groups by our unique sound, which is the result of extensive work on articulation as well as dynamics.”

MC: “The reaction to your 1994 release of Le Quattro Stagione was polarized. Some called it revelatory; others decried it as heresy. Were you looking to achieve a unique effect, and if so, why?”

GA: “We didn’t think of an iconoclastic approach, only a CD that was representative of our research and also the product of a dramatic approach to the music. We stressed chiaroscuro and theatricality which we felt had been overlooked in other recordings of Italian Baroque music. It is an approach that is far removed from, for example, the esthetic of I Musici, but is also quite distant from the inappropriate and dry style proffered by some ensembles, particularly by some English and Dutch groups.”

MC: “Is there a body of historical evidence to support your approach to music from the Baroque and Classical periods?”

GA: “There is quite a bit of history that underscores our approach. In addition to the utilization of thick gut strings, our sound has been influenced by the resurrection of bygone techniques which result in something entirely different from what some view as ‘historical.’ With regard to articulation, IGA’s research on articulation as it relates to the human voice and rhetoric are also factors. I concur with (Joseph Joachim) Quantz, who compared the qualities of a musician to those of a speaker. Baroque musical performance is a representation of affektenlehre, or the doctrine of musical affections, that is moods or temperaments, and it is necessary to know the affections in order to properly portray them in the musical sense and to communicate them to an audience.”

MC: “How have the audiences reacted to your unique approach to the Baroque and Classical repertoire?”

GA: “Audiences have always appreciated our performances, in particular those who are interested in other forms of music and who have no preconceived ideas on how the music should sound.”

MC: “Your latest release is for Naïve Classique and is titled La Casa del Diavolo. Did the repertoire dictate the title or was it the other way about?”

GA: “The title was an invitation to include highly dramatic selections, some of which have been in IGA’s repertoire.”

MC: “While Gluck’s Dance of the Spectres and Furies and Boccherini’s symphony known as La Casa del Diavolo are de rigeur for a release of this nature, how do the remaining works come under the umbrella of the title?”

GA: “There isn’t as much as an allusion to the Devil in the music of Locatelli or W.F. Bach, but there is a great deal of theatrical and dramatic weight which is also found in the music of Gluck and Boccherini. Also, there is an experimental character to all of the pieces, a character far removed from the Baroque sensibility and this trait also adumbrates the evolution music would undergo in the years following the French Revolution. In Italian, “to go to the Devil’s home” means to go to a distant place, and to  a degree, these pre-Romantic compositions exhibit the journey musical expression would make in the coming years.”

MC: “Most of—if not all of—the music on this CD has been recorded before. What traits does your recording exhibit that you feel will place it ahead of the competition?”

GA: “It’s always difficult to speak of one’s own recordings. For those who know IGA, this release will represent an evolution from our last recording as our interpretative language is more refined and individualistic. Concerning the differences between IGA’s approach to these works and the approach of other ensembles, the differences will be immediately clear to any listener.”

MC: “In spite of or due to music critics, IGA is alive, well, and it continues to force us to rethink the repertoire to which you are dedicated. What future projects can we expect?”

GA: “We will be participating in Naïve’s ongoing Vivaldi edition, and next year IGA will record the Vivaldi cello concertos with Christophe Coin. We are also considering touring with a Vivaldi opera and recording it. We would also like to try a staged version of a Rossini opera buffa such as La cambiale di matrimonio. That idea is especially appealing since as yet, no one has recorded a Rossini opera with period instruments.”

Giovanni Antonini and IGA have altered the preconceived notions about Baroque music and have left their indelible imprimatur on every work they have performed. The controversy concerning the uniqueness of their approach may never dissipate, but that’s not a bad thing, for we should never become comfortable with a single approach to music of any period or genre. After all, as has been proven over IGA’s two decades of existence, there’s always a new kid on the block with something to say, and as is the case here, it’s well worth hearing.

LA CASA DEL DIAVOLO • Giovanni Antonini, cond; Enrico Onofri (vn);¹ Ottavio Dantone (hpd);² Il Giardino Armonico (period instruments) • NAÏVE OP 30309 (69:26)

GLUCK Don Juan: Dance of the Spectres and the Furies. C. P. E. BACH Sinfonia in b, Wq. 182 no. 5. W. F. BACH Harpsichord Concerto in f.² LOCATELLI Concerto Grosso in EI, op. 7, no. 6 “Il pianto d’ Arriana”.¹ BOCCHERINI Sinfonia in d, op. 12, no. 4 “La Casa del Diavolo”.

The sleeve notes for this release begin with the following quote from Denis Diderot’s Le neveu de Rameau: “It is for the animal cry of passion to dictate the line that suits our purpose…the passions must be strong, the sensibility of the musician and the lyric poet must be extreme…We require exclamations, interjections, suspensions, interruptions, affirmations, negations; we cry, we invoke, we shout, we groan, we weep, we laugh quite openly. No wit, no epigrams, none of these pretty thoughts.” Thus the stage is set for another whirlwind musical experience with those exceptional musicians who collectively refer to themselves as Il Giardino Armonico.

Listening to this release will require those unfamiliar with IGA’s approach to reject any and all preconceived notions about this repertoire and buckle their seatbelts for an astounding and revelatory ride. Initially, this may appear a disparate collection of music from the Baroque and Classical periods, but it is unified by what Giovanni Antonini referred to in our discussion as the dramatic effect produced by each of the works.

Most of this repertoire is familiar to one degree or another, and its case has been made on period and modern instruments, but I have never heard it performed with the fire and passion evident in Boccherini’s La Casa del Diavolo, not to mention the aggressive tempos and incisive articulation one finds in the W. F. Bach concerto, and the dynamic extremes (especially the subito forte and subito piano effects) employed in the C. P. E. Bach sinfonia. The rubato, sculpting, and shading of the melodic lines in the Locatelli concerto leave one with the impression that violinist Enrico Onofri has more than a mere grasp of the meaning behind the subtitle, which roughly translates into English as Arianna’s tears or grief.

With their unique take on the music, IGA eloquenty and fervently presents their case with exceptional energy, bounding pulse, and sparkling articulation. The readings not only wear the mantle of the era with astonishing vitality and freshness, but they exude edge-of-the-seat excitement, command the listener’s attention, and elicit admiration and respect for the talents of the participants. Some may find the playing too aggressive, but to me, it betrays enthusiasm that I find lacking in many other and more “polite” approaches to this material.

In conclusion, this is not your parents’ Baroque music, and it probably isn’t the Baroque music on which you cut your teeth either. Neither is it for those with the bigoted ear who think they know how music of this ilk should sound. It is brash, bold, stimulating, and challenging, and it is these qualities that place it high on the list of exceptional recordings and also make it a potential candidate for my forthcoming Want List, so watch this space!