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Les Violons du Roy Pleases North America
By Philip Anson / March 18, 2001
On the Aisle |  |
Les Violons du Roy
Bernard Labadie, conductor
David Daniels, countertenor
March 18, 2001
Quebec’s top baroque music orchestra Les Violons du Roy (LVDR) kicked off their 8 city North American tour at New York’s Lincoln Center on March 18 with a concert mixing the sublime and the merely adequate. Tickets for the concert were “sold out” months ago, but one noted about 40 empty seats in 1,088-seat Alice Tully Hall, probably the usual number of no-shows on a Sunday afternoon. LVDR has had notable successes at Lincoln Center in the past which partly accounts for the good turnout.
First the good news. This early music (EM) band, which uses modern violins and baroque bows, produced its usual warm, accessible sound. Founder/conductor Bernard Labadie is not obsessed by the minutiae of period practice controversy. He is satisfied to please the public, so his band doesn’t go in for bizarre tempos and perverse production techniques - you know, the itchy and scratchy show of violent friction and jumpy bowing. Labadie prioritizes melody and rhythm, though he never quite matches the silky precision and pungent phrasing of his fellow EM conductors Marc Minkowski, Reinhard Goebbel, and Paul McCreesh. As a result, the music sometimes seems a bit limp and faceless - as was Purcell’s Chacony in G minor, the concert’s lugubrious opening number. Handel’s Concerto Grossi in F minor and A minor , Op. 6, No 9 and No. 4, were more interesting. The band played the slow movements with fluid grace, though the phrasing was at times too soft-edged. Fortunately this dreamy quality was perfect for Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op. 9, No. 2, splendidly played by Canadian oboist Diane Lacelle. Her tone and rhythm were exquisite, the musical highlight of the concert.
The concert’s nominal star was American countertenor David Daniels, who exerted his prerogative as a diva to effect a last minute change in the program. Instead of Vivaldi’s long, high, and stressful Nisi Dominus, RV 608, we got three Handel arias -- an exchange I accepted with gratitude. We weren’t so lucky with Bach’s sublime cantata “Ich hab genug”, BWV 82. This gem is usually sung by a baritone, mezzo or tenor. Pushing it up to male alto didn’t really work. In the recitatives Daniels had good German diction, but in the arias he sounded mushy. His tone is light and pretty, but too thin to give this music its full weight of pathos. He stuck close to the score and an episode of panicky page-turning suggested he didn’t know the work as well as possible. Sadly, Labadie took the lovely lullaby “Schlummert ein” too fast, forcing Daniels to shorten his phrases and robbing this aria of its magic.
The three Handel arias largely redeemed the concert. The two arias Daniels sang from Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare must have been fresh in mind, since he just finished a run of that opera at the Los Angeles Opera. We got “Aure, deh per pieta” and “Se in fiorito.” As usual, Daniels made the biggest impression with his steadily held notes, such as on the word “aure.” These notes were enchanting, and reduced the audience to bewitched silence.
Daniels was not as secure in his sole coloratura aria, “Vivi, tiranno” from Handel’s Rodelinda. For some reason, over the past few years Daniels has been scaling back the size and power of his voice. He used to be a real roof-raiser, but now he seems to be conserving his resources. His recent Rinaldo at the New York City Opera was a far cry from his early demented operatic performances. His current singing almost sounds like marking until one grows accustomed to it. Daniels is still a singer of rare sensibility, but you have to listen harder to get the effect. He used to paint murals, now he etches miniatures. None of that seemed to bother his frenzied fans, who gave him a nice standing ovation for the encore, Ombra mai fu.
Note: The program with David Daniels will be repeated in Milwaukee WI on March 20, Ann Arbor MI on March 22 , and Chicago IL on March 28 [cancelled due to “illness”]. Les Violons du Roy brings a purely orchestral program (no singer) to Port Hope (March 23), Cumberland (March 25), and Toronto, Ontario (March 27), and Amherst MA (March 30).
> Les Violons du Roy
> Lincoln Center
Copyright by Philip Anson (Questions or comments? Philanson@aol.com).
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