Concert Review                           by Classical Voice
 

Dutch recorder virtuoso plays with passion, fire

By Truman C. Wang
Saturday, October 21, 2006

An Evening of WATER MUSIC

Biber Battaglia
Handel Suite in G from "Water Music"
Telemann   Concerto for Flute & Recorder
Vivaldi   Concerto, "La Tempesta del Mare"
Telemann   The Hamburg Water Music

Martin Haselböck, conductor
Marion Verbruggen, recorders
Stephen Schultz, flute

Performance of Saturday, Oct 21, 2006 at Zipper Hall,
Colburn School of Music

 

W

ithin a few short years, Musica Angelica has quickly established itself as one of the finest period-instrument ensembles on the West Coast.  At the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall last Saturday, its first concert of the new season featured a watery-themed program that was anything but watered down.  On the contrary, it had the real excitement of swashbuckling on the high sea. 

In this case, however, the swashbuckler’s weapon was not a sword – but a recorder (two in fact, one soprano and one alto).  In the hands of Dutch virtuoso Marion Verbruggen, the normally wan and reedy-sounding recorder suddenly became an instrument of fire and temperament, ready to do battle in Biber’s (pronounced bee-bur) Battaglia or dance to the rustic strains of Handel’s Minute in the Water Music.  Ms. Verbruggen’s animated playing was enormously entertaining to watch, and the recorder seems to be just an extension of her effervescent personality. 

Flutist Stephen Schultz’s sweet, mellow sound complemented nicely the flighty recorder in Telemann’s Concerto for Flute and Recorder.  Conductor Martin Haselböck again proved to be a capable Kapellmeister, who kept the ‘water’ flowing and burbling swiftly (perhaps too swiftly in the Handel).  The 17 virtuoso players of Musica Angelica were, as always, splendid in their attacks and precision. 

But the greatest accolade must go to Ms. Verbruggen for this magical concert.
 

   

Truman C. Wang is editor-in-chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Pasadena Star-News and other Southern California publications.

 

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