Arts & Events

Over the weekend of November 13-17, early music conductor Jeannette Sorrell led Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a series of Bay Area concerts featuring Mozart’s music. I attended the Saturday, November 16, concert at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church. San Francisco native Jeannette Sorrell studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and studied conducting under Roger Norrington and Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals. Sorrell first achieved international recognition in 1991 when she won both First Prize and Audience Choice Award in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from all over the world. Then, in 1992, at age 26, Jeannette Sorrell founded in Cleveland the early music ensemble Apollo’s Fire, which over the years has built one of the largest audiences of any baroque orchestra in North America.  

Sorrell has indicated that her love of Mozart’s music goes back to her childhood, when she became entranced by the colour of Mozart’s writing for the orchestra. This awareness of orchestral colour later led Jeannette Sorrell to champion period instruments, which are used in her ensemble Apollo’s Fire. So, returning now to the Bay Area to conduct Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a period instrument ensemble, in concerts of Mozart’s music, brings Jeannette Sorrell full circle, as it were. On the program for these concerts were Mozart’s Overture to the opera La finta Semplice, his Concerto for Oboe in C Major, and his Symphony No. 40 in G minor. In addition, composer André Grétry (1741-1813), for whom the 12-year old Mozart played in Geneva, was represented by the Orchestral Suite from Grétry’s opera Zémir et Amor as well as La caravane du Caire, an opera-ballet. 

The program opened with Mozart’s Overture to La finta Semplice/The Pretend Simpleton. This opera was composed by the 12 year-old Mozart for the Imperial Court in Vienna at the request of Emperor Joseph II. However, court intrigue prevented the opera from being performed. Although young Mozart had not yet been to Italy, La finta Semplice’s Overture follows the fast-slow-fast structure of the Italian three movement sinfonia. As performed here in Berkeley under Jeannette Sorrell, a violin melody is supported by repeated bass notes, and scaled passagework abounds. Mozart, who had already been to Mannheim, had picked up there the emphasis on soft/loud dynamics, which are prevalent from the opening bars of this fine Overture. 

Next on the program came the Orchestral Suite from Grétry’s Zémir et Azor followed by La caravane du Caire/The Caravan of Cairo. Grétry’s music was new to me, and it was a revelation of sorts. His opéra-comique Zémir et Azor (1771), which along with Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), was set in exotic Turkey, features many then-fashionable musical turkismes. Further, Grétry, like Mozart, was heavily influenced by the example of the famed Mannheim Orchestra of Johann Stamitz; and one hears in the Overture to Zémir et Azor many of the “signatures’ of the Mannheim style such as a unison fanfare (premier coup d’archet), vivid dynamics, and many “Mannheim crescendos.” The pseudo-Turkish musical elements are even more prevalent in Grétry’s 1783 opera-ballet La caravane du Caire, especially in the Danse Égyptienne section, which imitates the cadence of a Turkish Janissary marching band. Here an “exotic” melody in the violins and oboes is accompanied by a shrill piccolo solo, beautifully performed here by Mindy Rosenfeld.  

Following the music by Grétry we returned to Mozart for his Oboe Concerto in C Major with noted oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz as soloist. This work, long thought lost, turns out to have been the 1777 predecessor of Mozart’s Flute Concerto of 1778, which latter was actually a reworked version of his Oboe Concerto. In the hands of oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, this Oboe Concerto was a show-stopper! The virtuosity of Ruiz was spectacular; and Jeannette Sorrell’s conducting was both graceful and animated. Her use of the left arm and hand was particularly expressive, while her right hand beat time with the baton. At the beginning of this work’s third movement, Gonzalo X. Ruiz had a false start caused by an instrument problem. But Ruiz immediately corrected the problem and went on to complete this Mozart Oboe Concerto in superb fashion, for which he received tumultuous applause from an appreciative audience. 

After intermission, Jeannette Sorrell returned to the stage to lead Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. This great symphony, Mozart’s next-to-last, was given a sensitive reading by Sorrell. The famed opening measure was impressive, as was the question-and-answer structure of the opening movement. The second movement, marked Adagio ma non troppo, features a melody we recognise from the Irish song “My sweet Molly Malone.” This melody undergoes multiple variations throughout the entirety of this lovely movement; and it was beautifully performed here under the leadership of Jeannette Sorrell. The third movement, marked Menuetto, utilises an “off-beat” hemiola, which displaces the accent in a two measure format. The final movement, marked Allegro assai, utilises the famed “Mannheim rocket,” a rapidly ascending arpeggiated chord, which here undergoes many variations and concludes the symphony with a flourish. For her sterling efforts, Jeannette Sorrell received enthusiastic, much-deserved applause from the Berkeley audience.