The art of improvisation may not be lost, but in the classical music world, improvising musicians are rare. J.S. Bach could do it. So could Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and several others. By the early 20th century, however, note-reading musicians outnumbered improvisers by about a million to one, thanks in part to the advent of recorded music. That’s why it is a rare treat to hear a program like the one Crescendo has put together for June 10 in Lakeville and June 12 in Great Barrington: Conventional performances of music from the Italian and English Renaissance and early Baroque period are common enough, but improvised ones are not, and in any Crescendo program there is a good chance you’ll hear something rare or even newly discovered.
The program’s full title, The Art of the Improvisation: Extemporaneous Dialogues, makes it clear that these musicians are prepared to give up the security of reading transcribed solos and face the daunting hazards of playing notes they make up on the spot. Only a classically trained musician can imagine the kind of “fortitude” this requires. Most would sooner drive an automobile blindfolded than play anything they didn’t get directly off a score.
Crescendo Artistic Director Christine Gevert and Boston-based keyboardist Juan A. Mesa both play an instrument on this program called a virginal, which is one of the older members of the harpsichord family.
Joining Gevert and Mesa on archlute and Renaissance lute will be Tokyo-born Hideki Yamaya, who has performed with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Portland Opera, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Baroque Northwest, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, and many other early music ensembles. He comprises half of the Schneiderman-Yamaya Duo and is the artistic director for Musica Maestrale, an early music collective based in Portland.
Christine Gevert has made a name for herself as a programmer of rarely-heard and newly discovered works, often making her own performing editions for chorus, soloists, and orchestra directly from the original manuscripts. So don’t worry if you don’t recognize some of these composers’ names, all of whom are on the list because they composed for two keyboards and lute: Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554-1612), Ercole Pasquini (c. 1560-1619), Claudio Merulo (1533-1604), John Dowland (1563-1626), Solomon Eccles (1618-1683), Alessandro Piccinini (1566-1638), Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710).
Gevert may be the music director of a “small” church, but the impact she has had in her multi-decade career as a practitioner of early music is large. She would make an outstanding early music DJ, because she’s one of the keepers of the canon, having authored more than 80 historical basso continuo realizations for the Swiss publisher Amadeus Verlag.
Art of the Improvisation will take place:
Friday, June 10, at 6 p.m.
Trinity Lime Rock Church
Lakeville, Connecticut
Sunday, June 12, at 4 p.m.
Saint James Place
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Masks and proof of vaccination required. Tickets here.
