Reviews

NCC: All That Bazz! In Person
October 11, 2021, Freemason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk
Review by John Campbell

After a year of live-streamed concerts, it was refreshing to hear many of the same performers in-person: Wayla Chambo, MC and flute; Todd Holcomb, guitar (solo and as half of Duo Thalassa); Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn (solo and as the Invencia Piano Duo); John Toomey, jazz pianist; Kevin Kwan, organ.

A live audience of more than fifty masked listeners heard the program titled All That Bazz! that was streamed online to many more. Organist extraordinaire Kevin Kwan played Prelude & Fugue in C Major BWV 547 by J.S. Bach on the house pipe organ in the acoustically lively space. For twelve minutes Bach's mighty architectural breadth was given a crisp articulation that emphasized the contrapuntal complexity. Such clarity and grandeur – glorious!

Back to a more earthly clime there followed Jazz Fantasia on Themes from J.S. Bach's Prelude & Fugue in C Major BWV 547. Jazz pianist John Toomey gave us an exploration of twelve measures of Bach. A gentle opening was followed by variations in touch on the keys in a continuing line. Rhythm changes and varied articulations all riveted our attention to this Bach-inspired jazz. For listeners surprised by this programming, think of it this way: improvising was a permanent staple of composers and performers in Bach's day. On an NCC program back in April, 2003, John Toomey played with a quartet that accompanied a jazz vocalist. The review can be found here Click "NCC" above “American Masters.”

The piano was removed and Duo Thalassa (Wayla Chambo, flute & Todd Holcomb, guitar) played I. Prelude and II. Fuga from Bach's four-movement Suite in C Minor, BWV 997, originally composed for lute (Arr. Gerd-Michael Dausend/Duo Thalassa). According to program notes from a Julian Bream CD we learn that Bach's lute-harpsichords (Lautenwerk) with both gut and metal strings, enabled him to exercise his keyboard skill and produce lute-like sounds. Bream argues in favor of a modern guitar so adding a flute to round out the sound is not that big a step. Wayla and Todd's combination gives a richness and continual flow that neither instrument alone can produce. The flute takes the lead. The music becomes dancy with the players engaging with each other in a lively dialogue. The flute soars brilliantly from the firm base provided by the guitar in this polished, top-notch performance.

Concluding the opening half was a flute solo composed by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004). As is often the case, Norfolk Chamber Concert gave us a piece that we had not heard before. I am familiar with two of Perkinson's songs from Willis Patterson's Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers (1977). Perkinson was part of the mid-century academic movement in American music and was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and was later on the faculty there and at Brooklyn College. He was music director of the Alvin Ailey Americn Dance Theater and Symphony of the New World. He also wrote film and TV scores and is represented on recordings of popular, jazz, blues and serious music. We heard two movements from his Sonata à la Baroque for solo flute (1994). Allegro uses repetitive motives much like the noodling of material in jazz by John Toomey, even though Perkinson adheres to a stricter approach. Gigue Rondo takes wing but like a helicopter it flies in place while some inner voices emerge until the end when it zips away. To my ear, this is the result when an American black composer tries to fit into a white, academic, European mold.

After we returned from intermission we were told that a special treat awaited us—an unrehearsed improvisation! Kasparov played a twenty-note melody from the fugue subject from Bach's B Minor Fugue from Book One of his Well-Tempered Clavier. Toomey sat down at the piano and improvised spontaneously. There was joy in the melody at first, only to darken, creating a sense of searching as he continued. Bach jazz really worked and the audience loved it.

Afterward NCC Co-Artistic directors Kasparov and Lutsyshyn played three Bach themes arranged for piano four hands. Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring from Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 (Arr. Myra Hess,1934) brought a tear to my eye for the sheer beauty of sound in this place, thankful that we were here together and alive. Then came Sleepers Awake, The Watchman Cries, BWV 140, 645 (Arr. Harriet Cohen, 1952). Bach's majestic rhythm with two pianists realizing it together offered us an overwhelming experience of the mysterious bliss of the bride (the church) and the bridegroom (Christ) in dialogue.

The third selection was The Lord is Sun and Shield from Cantata Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79 (Arr. Kasparov, 2007). According to Bach biographer Phillipp Spitta there is no contrapuntal accompaniment in Bach's usual manner, but the two violinists in the original cantata “paw the ground like impatient chargers, bursting with unrestrained energy in this triumphant hymn.” The precisely played notes with lots of tinkling runs filled out the fabric of sound. Young composer and sometime Artsong Update reviewer Adelaide Coles says "I think in his arrangment Kasparov aimed to make the piano sound as much like a church organ as possible with those entwining textures as he added more or fewer layers of melodic voices to make a fuller or sparser sound." The definitive final notes felt complete.

Reversing the order of things, the Bach Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor BWV 542 was interpreted first by John Toomey on jazz piano with cascades of flourishes, a mellow romantic section and technically brilliant playing. This time only seven measures were written out and the rest was improvised.

If we needed a justification for such liberty in playing Bach, Bach himself gave license. Calling the piece a fantasia instead of a praeludium implies a free construction of an improvisatory character. These elements are particularly marked in the G Minor Fantasy and Fugue which features some of Bach's most adventurous chromatic modulations. It is a counterpart to the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue for harpsichord (The Oxford Companion to J.S. Bach (1999). Toomey bopped back and forth within the key.

Before Kevin Kwan played the Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, Kasparov asked him to open the short red curtains that usually block the view of the organ loft. The organ wizard was revealed and his playing hid nothing! The grand finale cadence resounded through the sanctuary leaving us stimulated and fulfilled.

A Consort Christmas
Freemason Street Baptist Church
December 13, 2021
Review by John Campbell

Freemason Street Baptist Church again hosted The Norfolk Chamber Consort. This second ever Norfolk Chamber Consort Christmas program offered both novelties and all-time favorites and was anchored by Kevin Kwan at the organ in music by J.S. Bach: In dulci jubilo (In sweet rejoicing) BWV 729. With a text from the Middle Ages, it was used as part of Lessons and Carols services in the Anglican tradition. It was followed by Magnificat BWV 733 in D Minor. “I will magnify the Lord” said by Mary when she is told by the angel that she will bear the Christ child. These dramatic pieces were marvelously played to prepare us for the music of celebration to come.

Tapping into a mystical sense of the old year ending, Bianca Hall, with psaltery in hand, gave us three high-soprano selections focused on the stars that shone on the night of Christ's nativity. The psaltery is a medieval trapezoid-shaped instrument with strings over a soundboard, often plucked by fingers or a plectrum, here played by a short bow. For hundreds of years a singer with psaltery was a sort of one-person band of very gentle, engaging music. Nova stella apparita (A new star is born) is an anonymous 14th century Italian song. Hall followed it with Canzoni di Zampognari (Song of the Bagpipers), a traditional 16th century song that tells us that “the Stars in the heavens shone bright and beautiful” as did her singing. The set concluded with a Southern Harmony anonymous song from 1835, Star of the East that raises the question of what gift is appropriate for the babe. This familiar hymn tune with its stilted text of that era says that the heart's adoration is dearer to God than any material gift. The tender vibe with its simple joy offered a contrast to the bolder expressions of the season.

Next the ten-member Old Dominion University Jazz Choir filed in from the back of the sanctuary and gave an exciting selection of seasonal songs with Director John Toomey at the piano. The Spinning Dreidel honored Hanukkah. Then Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells and even The Sugar Plum Fairy each had its own jazzy vocal, arrangement. An arrangement by jazz trumpeter Thad Jones of A Child is Born had crunchy harmonies. Soprano Ava Stevenson sang One Small Heart. Then there was a re-harmonized O Come All Your Faithful requested by Andrey Kasparov and a fun playing around with Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas that again featured Ava with Reann Nichols, whose few sultry notes made a striking impact. I wish we'd heard more from her. The excitement from the jazz segment animated conversations of the large audience during the intermission.

We returned to hear Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams played on violin by Emily Ondracek-Peterson, the first-ever Executive Director of the Diehn School of Music, with NCC Co-director Oksana Lutsyshyn at the piano. The dreamy music opens and closes with solo violin and between is delightful music with serene, pastoral sounds used to evoke a sense of bliss in lyrical strings. Her beautiful, evocative tone with vibrato was perfectly matched with Ms. Lutsyshyn's romantic, passionate piano. The melody is a faithful setting of the original English folk song. Initially the composer used it in the third act of his Shakespeare-inspired opera Sir John in Love and blended in a second traditional melody, Lovely Joan that Vaughan Williams heard in Suffolk in 1934. I'm glad he did—it gave us a beautiful experience.

Dr. Ondracek-Peterson has recently relocated to the Hampton Roads area to become the first Executive Director of ODU’s Diehn School of Music, and possesses an impressive musical pedigree, having received undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Juilliard School in New York City, and a doctorate in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Hampton Roads is happy and fortunate to welcome her and look forward to future performances.

Back to the jazzy theme, the Méditation sur le 1er Prelude de J.S. Bach by Charles Gounod (arr. Joseph Hummel) reminded me of the opening piece on a CD, Play Bach Jazz with Pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). Here the performers were Invencia Piano Duo: Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn. Next came their We Three Kings of Orient Are. Kasparov's bass notes carried the melody while Lutsyshyn's notes tinkled above. This arrangement by Eric Baumgartner was followed by another of his arrangements for duo piano, Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from Nutcracker. It was great to once again see them sitting side-by-side playing the familiar, lilting tune.

Alone, Dr. Lutsyshyn played Louis Sauter's (b.1955) Variations on “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” Theme and 5 Variations: Classical, a precise figgy pudding; Romantic, a blurred figgy pudding; Messiaenic, a dreamy French dessert; Minimal Toccata, a clever plate display of spare notes (Like an haute cuisine dessert with few ingredients artfully and precisely placed on a plate); and Punctual, a very busy tune that explodes into scattered bits in all directions. You can hear it on the composer's website,  https://www.lsauter.com/, just as we did live, as well as on NCC's Facebook page, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB-lYomFnEY.

The mood shifted to one somber and deeper when flutist Wayla Chambo played Winter Spirits (1997) written by Katherine Hoover (1937-2018), the faraway feeling inspired by a Native American theme. Played from the balcony, the ethereal sound had a penetrating impact on the audience. Two streams of sound from her flute were followed by a single layer of notes.

When organist Kwan joined Ms. Chambo he gave us the tune of “Oh come let us adore him” repeated in a never ending round with Pietro Yon's Gesù Bambino (1917) in the flute above. A deep growl in the organ had the last word.

English composer Andrew Carter (b.1939) wrote his organ Toccata on Veni Emmanuel (1995) on a request by the Oxford University Press, using his favorite Advent hymn influenced by a recent trip to France where he heard a grand French toccata. O Come, O Come Emmanuel was well served as organist Kwan danced on the pedals in the grand opening that filled the sanctuary with exuberant music that moved at a great pace to a grand finale of the arrival of Our Emmanuel! It sent us out into the winter night with a warm glow.