Duo Amadeus

November 1, 2019
Croatian Cultural Center, 801 5th Street, Anacortes

Celebrated violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, concertmaster of the world-famous Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), performs on her 1660 Andrea Guarneri violin with her duo partner Tamara Friedman playing on her fine replica of a 1782 Johann Andreas Stein fortepiano. One of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partitas for unaccompanied violin, duo sonatas by Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach, and music by the incomparable Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be performed.

What Is Historically Informed Performance?

Historically informed performance (period performance) is an approach in Western music which adheres to the knowledge, as it is currently known, of the instruments and performance practice of the period in which the music was conceived.  Access to examples of earlier musical instruments and historical treatises are the bases on which period performance is formed.  Instruments corresponding to the period of the music being performed are used, as well as technique and aesthetics of the period.

Why Historically Informed Performance?

I am an adventurer.  I like invention.  I like discovery.   

Early on in my career, I was known as a performer of contemporary music:  a disciple of the avant-garde and master of extended technique.  So how did I end up specializing in historically informed performance?  Because my interest in experimental music has never been confined to the present day.

Every age has its avant-garde.  There was a time when Mozart was incredibly modern; when the string quartet was an experimental configuration; and when the cello as a solo instrument was unthinkable.

Textbooks and program notes neatly parse the history of music into periods clearly defined by common stylistic traits and start/stop dates.  In reality, though, the boundaries were never so distinct.  Between Bach and Mozart or Haydn and brahms there are nebulous grey areas:  so-called “transitional” periods characterized by intense musical experimentation.

History largely glosses over these interstitial periods – the works are sometimes strange, non-conforming to any codified style – but I love these self-same works for their sense of freedom and wanton exploration.

There is more to the history of music than we have been told  – and these are the storied I want to tell.

–   Karlheinz Stockhausen  (1928 – 2007)

Why Period Instruments?

I grew up playing modern flute and love playing early music on modern instruments. But, they are not what the composers had in mind and do not possess many qualities and capabilities the composers expected.  The "evolution" of musical instruments has always required the sacrifice of certain capabilities that are less esteemed in favor of others that better suit the music of the times.

The earlier instruments provide a heightened sense of intimacy. They are softer and playing techniques require less pressure. They are more delicate and "painterly," with more coloration of tone. There is a heightened harmonic clarity, as the tones are much less obscured and evened out by vibrato, so the tones interact more clearly.

The tuning is more pure, both as early instruments are tuned differently and because of a sensitivity to pure thirds, which suffer in the equally-out-of-tune, evenly-compromised modern system.  There is a very different tonal aesthetic and blend; modern instruments are more brilliant and have sounds that stand apart from one another, whereas the old ones have richer, fuller sounds on a softer dynamic level that more willingly blend into or, perhaps you could say, contribute to one another.

- Jeffrey Cohen

Music is the conjuring of the past ideas made new, and the end result is the sharing with others, fellow musicians, conductor, and, of course, the audience. A shared experience that can touch the heart, the mind, the soul of one and all listeners for that moment in time to unite us all in community – those who make the music and those who listen. Music cannot be solitary; rather, music is the embodiment of community, striving for harmony yet requiring individuality in the midst of mutuality. – Rosalie Romano