What a
great start to a concert when you are welcomed by music even before you enter
the concert hall. This is what happened last weekend in The Hague as the
audience arrived to hear the Ciconia Consort open their 2013/14 season. The
musical theme was the hunt and a local group of hunting horn players, the Jachthoorngroep Waalsdoorp, set the scene in the open air and continued with
brief hunting calls inside between pieces.
My Dutch
friend told me, approvingly, that there are numerous hunting horn groups in the
Netherlands, maintaining a long tradition and, not so approvingly, they are all
male. The group we heard was made up of horns of different sizes, from smaller
than a bugle to larger than a modern French Horn, and this allowed for some
really nice harmony which was in tune and with excellent ensemble playing. Spoken explanations were given by
Simon Fuks describing the development of the horn over time.
The concert
itself kicked off with Leopold Mozart´s Sinfonia de Caccia for four horns and
strings. There was some lovely playing on the natural horns and conductor Dick
van Gasteren kept lively tempi throughout. Personally I could do without the
balloons being pricked to represent the gunshots but others obviously found it
amusing. I think if you can’t find a pistol maybe you are better just to leave
this out. Why spoil such nice playing with horrible noises?
Vivaldi´s
violin concerto La Caccia followed, with Quirine van Hoek as soloist. The playing
throughout was excellent and the continuo part was played by Javier Ovejero
Mayoral on a chitarrone. Using this instrument meant that the sections with
solo violin, solo cello and continuo had a beautifully balanced ensemble and
the instrument has a much more mellow sound than a harpsichord.
Dick van
Gasteren introduced Mozart’s string quartet Die Jagd by reminding us that the
composer lived in The Hague for several months when he was touring Europe with
his parents and sister. In fact they lodged in a building almost across the
road from the concert venue. I checked later and it turns out it was in 1765
when Mozart was nine. I am not sure about the point of performing a chamber
music piece with an orchestra: the composer had a certain musical texture in
mind and multiplying the number of players per part means that we are
distorting that texture. I understand the idea of keeping to the hunt theme,
but to be honest I think very few people in the audience would have walked out
if one of the pieces had not been hunt-themed.
We heard a
wonderful wind section in the closing piece, Haydn’s Symphony 73, La Chasse,
and I think it would have been better to have played another piece using all
these players rather than the string quartet. The Haydn was beautifully played.
The Minuetto went at a ripping tempo and there was a frisson of risk, which
fortunately did not materialize into an accident, hunt-wise or music-wise.
You can
find more information about the Ciconia Consort and see much better pictures
than mine. The young players are very fortunate to perform in such a superb venue
as the Nieuwe Kerk a multi-purpose building which has not been used as a
church since the 70’s and which has wonderful acoustics.
What with
all the hunting horn pieces, the full programme and long explanations by the
speaker, the concert turned into a marathon two and a half hours. Nobody seemed
to mind too much, and nobody minded either when a man wandered in during the
Haydn, tried out a few seats and finally settled on the front row. Nobody
challenged him or told him to get out, we all just sat listening to the music.
How can anyone not love living in Holland!
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