(++++) THE OLD AND THE NEW

Haydn: Symphony No. 104; Cello Concerto No. 1; Beethoven: Symphony No. 1. Steuart Pincombe, cello; Philharmonie Austin conducted by Mark Dupere. Navona. $16.99. 

Poul Ruders: Transfigurations—A Double Portrait for Recorder and String Orchestra; A Movable Concerto—Five Short Pieces for Positive Organ and Strings; Concerto for Harpsichord and Symphony Orchestra. Michala Petri, recorder; Peter Navarro-Alonso, positive organ; Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord; Kremerata Baltica conducted by Andris Veismanis; Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam. OUR Recordings. $21.99. 

     The notion of combining older with newer approaches to music is a longstanding one in the United States: the country’s oldest continuously performing arts organization, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, was formed in 1815 specifically to meld what was then “old” (Handel) with what was then “new” (Haydn). Nowadays the mixture may be quite different, along with the very definition of “old” and “new,” but the impulse to bring material from different eras and/or styles together is as strong as ever, and its value comes through particularly clearly in period-instrument performances such as those by Philharmonie Austin on a new Navona CD. The repertoire here is scarcely unfamiliar, and indeed there is an overlap in time between Haydn’s final symphony and Beethoven’s first: the former was initially performed in 1795, and the latter was in its formative stages in that year. What is intriguing, however, is how well the works both blend and contrast to our modern ears when heard on period instruments with an appropriately sized instrumental ensemble such as this. Haydn’s “London” symphony comes across as a large, even grand work, from its opening timpanic underlining (strongly emphasized by conductor Mark Dupere) to its expansive Andante and the insistent propulsiveness of its elegant finale. Beethoven’s First, on the other hand, emerges as a rather modest piece: Beethoven said that he never learned anything from Haydn, but this symphony is Haydnesque in many ways, from its bounce and jollity (never as strong as Haydn’s wit, but cut from much the same cloth) to its overall proportions and generally bright demeanor. And yet its overall sound is different – subtly, to be sure, and to some extent only retrospectively, but different it is. Dupere does nothing untoward to try to create unjustified parallels between the symphonies, but with the very fine ensemble playing and careful orchestral balance he brings to both works, he demonstrates that even though they are both from the same time period and have much in common, they use the instrumental and ensemble capabilities of the late 18^th century in different ways and to different ends. Indeed, there is something “newer” in both the symphonies when they are contrasted with Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1, written 30-plus years before Symphony No. 104. This concerto’s considerable popularity with performers and audiences alike is fully justified by its poise, elegance and thorough demonstration of Haydn’s skill at writing for the cello – and, in this performance, Steuart Pincombe’s historically apt and thoroughly engaging handling of the solo part. But there is certainly something old-fashioned about the concerto, in its overall design and the intermingling of its solo and tutti sections. This is, however, entirely immaterial to enjoyment of the work, which is very enjoyable indeed in this performance – and if Haydn now definitely represents the “old” after being deemed “new” in 1815, that reality signifies nothing in terms of the pleasures that are still very much present in his music. 

     The old/new dichotomy plays out differently on a new OUR Recordings release and in the mind and compositional skill of Poul Ruders (born 1949). Here Ruders is quite deliberately employing instruments that are regarded as old, even old-fashioned to the point of obsolescence, in the service of music that is very much of the 21^st century. The results are always intriguing and at times rather disconcerting, since Ruders uses the instruments in ways that “old” composers would never have dreamt of employing. Transfigurations (2022) features two movements that are both labeled Alla breve moderato and both set Michala Petri’s solo recorder against string clouds that are born in dissonance and that sometimes set off the recorder’s notes while at other times subsuming them within a vast expanse of auditory miasma. The recorder comes to the fore and even supplies some solo material too at times, especially in the first movement, which is twice the length of the second and, although it partakes of a similar sonic environment, moves toward eventual quiescence. The recorder is not as unfamiliar today as the positive organ, though, so Transfigurations does not leave quite as distinctive an impression as A Movable Concerto (2023), whose title draws on the fact that its solo part is written for a small, portable, single-keyboard organ that was in widespread use for sacred purposes through the Baroque era and then fell rapidly out of style. The positive organ may lack the grandeur of the massive fixed organs built into churches and other edifices, but its delicate sound and very pleasant volume range help it fit quite neatly into the strings of Kremerata Baltica, ably conducted by Andris Veismanis for both this work and Transfigurations. Peter Navarro-Alonso amply demonstrates the capabilities of the positive organ in five thoroughly secular pieces that are less insistent on harmonic and rhythmic modernity than the two elements of Transfigurations. Indeed, A Movable Concerto is more of a suite than anything else, its five movements’ varying moods coming through with considerable pleasurable effect – with the Largo legatissimo being as emotionally expressive in its way as the faster-paced Animato and Vivace elements are in theirs. Ruders here elicits many notable details from both the solo instrument and the ensemble, from the broadly planned opening Alla breve to a concluding Andante packed with considerable warmth despite its clearly modern harmonic palette. There is also considerable expressiveness in Ruders’ Concerto for Harpsichord and Symphony Orchestra (2019), which here features Mahan Esfahani performing with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Leif Segerstam. The harpsichord has not been entirely neglected by modern composers and has even found its way into some distinctly modern media: the wry British TV spy series The Avengers, best known for the episodes with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, notably featured harpsichord-pervaded Laurie Johnson music. But Ruders takes the instrument into the sort of solo spotlight that it first occupied in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, albeit in an entirely different tonal universe. The concerto’s three movements follow the traditional fast-slow-fast pattern and showcase the harpsichord’s expressive potential as well as giving the soloist multiple opportunities to display virtuosic control of the instrument. Modernity is scarcely neglected – some of the chords, notably in the central movement, are distinctly dissonant, and the hammering sounds that start the finale are quite emphatically contemporary – but the overall feeling of the concerto is a somewhat old-fashioned one. The work effectively treads the line between being a display piece for the instrument and its performer, on the one hand, and being a genuinely expressive work within the concerto genre, on the other. Of the three pieces heard here – all of them world première recordings – it is this concerto that offers listeners the most engaging experience and the best demonstration of ways in which a thoroughly modern musical language can employ older instruments effectively, in ways that reconsider those instruments’ capabilities in a new context and that serve both to unite the old and the new and to highlight the surprising extent of their complementarity.