Arts & Events

On Sunday, April 10, Cal Performances presented a concert in Zellerbach Hall by English Baroque Soloists conducted by the group’s founding director, John Eliot Gardiner. Performing on period instruments, the English Baroque Soloists offered Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, nicknamed “The Drumroll,” after its opening roll of the timpani, as well as two works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 364, and Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K.543.  

Haydn was in London in 1794-5, on his second visit there, when he presented his Symphony No. 103 on March 2, 1795. The drum-roll opens this work and it reappears later in this symphony’s second movement. The opening movement, a solemn Adagio, offers a stunning recitative for string basses. The ensuing Allegro movement trips along in six-eight meter, and its second subject is a jaunty waltz for oboe and violins. One variation offers a lovely violin solo while another features trumpets and drums. The coda of this second movement brings a return of both the drum-roll and the Adagio’s recitative. The third movement, a skittering Minuet, imitates Alpine yodelling and features a clarinet. The Finale opens with a rustic hunting call from the horns then offers a tune from Hungary in the violins. A long sonata-rondo ensues with highly sophisticated elaboration. John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists demonstrated great orchestral cohesion in this rewarding Haydn symphony.  

Next on the program was Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra in E-flat major. Back in Salzburg after the death of his mother in Paris, Mozart drew on what he had learned of the monumental style in Mannheim and he infused his Sinfonia concertante with newfound maturity. Musicologist Alfred Einstein, (not to be confused with the similarly named theorist of relativity in physics), writes of this Sinfonia concertante, that “No mere allegro or allegro spiritosa opens this work, but rather an Allegro maestosa. The motives are no longer buffo or simply gallant in style; they are truly symphonic or singing.” In this work, English Baroque Soloists featured their principal violinist, Kati Debretzeni, and principal violist, Fanny Paccoud. These elegant soloists carried on an extensive dialogue throughout this Sinfonia concertante. In the second movement, a lovely Andante in C minor, any hint of mere gallantry is resolutely avoided, and the answer of the viola to the muffled plaint of the violin, leading to the gentle key of E-flat major, comes as a revelation of deepest feeling. The final movement, marked Presto, opens with the violin soloist introducing a jaunty tune. There ensues an effusive development in contradance tempo that eventually brings this superb work to an ebullient close. Conductor John Eliot Gardiner joined his soloists, Kati Debretzeni and Fanny Paccoud, in acknowledging the enthusiastic applause from the Zellerbach Hall audience.  

After intermission, English Baroque Soloists performed Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K. 543. The first of Mozart’s great three last symphonies, this is the only one to take full advantage of clarinets. Dated as completed on June 26, 1788, this symphony opens with a slow Adagio whose dotted rhythms and scale passages hark back to the French ouverture of the early 18th century at Versailles. The key of E-flat major is also the key of Die Zauberflöte, and some scholars believe Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 shares in that opera’s interest in Freemasonry. It opens with a slow Adagio then launches into an exuberant Allegro  

. The second movement, an Andante in A, is rich in thematic material subjected to variations and alternations. The third movement is a Minuet with an engaging Trio featuring two clarinets. The fourth and final movement, marked Allegro, is monothematic although its apparently nonchalant ebullience is suddenly disrupted by the fierce dissection of its theme in the terse development section. Nonetheless, all’s well that ends well, and this symphony closes in a festive mood of great cheerfulness featuring trumpets, drums, and flute as well as the strings. Here too, as in all the works performed in this concert, English Baroque Soloists amply demonstrated their precise musical cohesion under the leadership of John Eliot Gardiner.