Proms Chamber Music 3 (30.7.12): La Tarantella

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Monday 30 July
1.00pm – c. 2.00pm
Cadogan Hall

The tarantella, the entrancing dance form found in several Mediterranean countries, is the unifying thread here.
L'Arpeggiata's programme recalls the popular myth that the bite of the tarantula could only be cured by music and dancing, a remedy known since the Middle Ages as 'tarantismo'. The associated songs and improvisations – tailored to match the varied symptoms of torpor, excitability and restlessness afflicting victims of the spider's poison – are revived in a virtuosic performance that transcends generic boundaries. The innovative period-instrument ensemble is joined by dancer Anna Dego.


The innovative period instrument ensemble L'Arpeggiata celebrates the Tarantella - a Mediterranean dance form which was born out of the myth that a venomous tarantula spider bite could only be cured by music and dancing.

Known in the Middle Ages as 'tarantismo', the dance moves immitated the symptoms of a tarantula bite, such as excitability and restlessness. L'Arpeggiata perform a sequence of Baroque, traditional and improvised music on the theme, including works by Falconieri, Kapsberger, Kircher and Soler.

Cazzati: Ciaccona
Strozzi: Eraclito amoroso
Trad: Stu' criatu
Improvisation: Tarantella Napoletana
Kapsberger: Toccata Prima
Trad: La Carpinese
Improvisation: Canario
Marcello Vitale: Tarantella a Maria di Nardo'
Improvisation: La dia Spagnola
Strozzi: Che si puo fare
Improvisation: Tarantella Italiana
Soler: Fandango
Kapsberger: L'Arpeggiata
Monteverdi: Si dolce e'l tormento
Marcello Vitale: Moresca
Falconiero: La Suave Melodia
Trad: Lu Passariellu
Kircher: Antidotum Tarantulae

L'Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar (theorbo/director).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I read somewhere that the tarantula isn't particularly dangerous to humans.

But I digress. What an interesting collection for this PCM concert.

[JohnSkelton]

They made a terrific recording of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 - looking forward to this (and I can listen 'live').

http://www.jesterbear.com/Aradia/TarantellaDance.html is interesting.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I enjoyed this concert immensely. But for the life of me I cannot reconcile the items played with the playlist given in the Proms pages. It starts off all right, but soon I am sure items have been missed or added. I realise that the pieces were played in blocks of four or so.

Can anyone who was there and has a programme give the true order of items for me, please?

[Richard J.]

I cannot reconcile the items played with the playlist given in the Proms pages.

Clemency Burton-Hill explained to the audience in the hall before the broadcast that changes had been made to the programme, and that we might find it difficult to follow the concert from the printed programme. She implied that details would be given when she interviewed Christina Pluhar. But although there was a passing reference to "some changes to the programme", no details were provided at all.

I cannot recall attending a classical music concert where late changes had been made to the programme AND no details of the changes were provided, either in print or from the stage. I hope the BBC will provide a definitive programme list in due course.

It was enjoyable in parts, but I felt that a lot of liberties were being taken with the music. I'm not usually fussy about which instruments are used for music of this vintage, but Doron Sherwin's very prominent cornett (front right of the stage) tended to over-dominate the ensemble with his heavy ornamentation or sometimes what sounded like pure improvisation. Indeed some of the 18 (!) items listed in the programme were improvisations, which sounded to me quite jazz-like in their presentation.

The only piece on the programme that I knew well was Soler's Fandango. This is a harpsichord work that lasts 10-12 minutes. I noted that the programme listed it as 3 minutes. It sounded longer than that, but it wasn't the whole work. It was basically played on the harp plus other instruments, and added percussion. I thought the harpist (Sarah Ridy) did very well, but again the cornett's contribution seemed out of place. It was an abridged version with a cobbled-together ending. To describe it as Soler's Fandango without caveat was absurd, and made we wonder what liberties had been taken with the rest of the programme.

And then the encore complete with the dancer who changed dresses while the music played and then invited a member of the audience to joing her on the stage, with the audience clapping the beat ..... well, at this point I felt that the music was relegated to an incidental feature. I left after Clemency Burton-Hill returned R3 to Broadcasting House, but I noticed on my way out that L'Arpeggiata had embarked on another encore. This was after 85 minutes of this nominally 1-hour concert.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. I love the CD, but this was very much different repertoire - only 5 of the 17 tracks from the disc were included here, along with other tarantellas and choice items, including Monteverdi and Strozzi. My review is now online:

http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_prom_review.php?id=10332

[PJPJ]

It made excellent listening at home (despite loss of visuals!). Excellent sound, too, from Cadogan Hall.

[JohnSkelton]

It was enjoyable in parts, but I felt that a lot of liberties were being taken with the music. I'm not usually fussy about which instruments are used for music of this vintage, but Doron Sherwin's very prominent cornett (front right of the stage) tended to over-dominate the ensemble with his heavy ornamentation or sometimes what sounded like pure improvisation. Indeed some of the 18 (!) items listed in the programme were improvisations, which sounded to me quite jazz-like in their presentation.

I'm afraid that was my reaction too. I certainly wouldn't complain about improvisation and ornamentation which are fine, desirable. wonderful etc. but at times the concert veered too close to cross-over / pretend jazz in a Pizza restaurant for me. Sorry to be
a misery . Their Monteverdi Vespers is a very different beast.

[Alf-Prufrock]

My thanks to all those who replied to my post. It seems we shall have wait to see if the BBC got the titles of the items actually played from Christina Pluhar or one of her assistants, and takes the trouble to change the information on the proms page. In my experience lately, this will not happen.

I hate cataloguing an item in my Recorded Music Folder as 'Unknown Piece'!

[hmvman]

I enjoy Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata's work but I think 'free interpretations' and jazz-like improvisation is part of what they do. Even carefully reading their CD notes, I often find it hard to work out which is original music and which improvisation/arrangement. Still, taken at face value I enjoy their music-making and the sounds they make.

[doversoul1]

I only heard the beginning of the concert (had to be away for family duty and have just come back) but some of the songs and probably the dance can be seen here (I think).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zra1BvTAciU

I tend to agree with JohnSkelton: their Monteverdi, especially Vespers, and Italian early music are wonderful but I find their more folk/traditional projects far too close to popular/entertainment, as this South American project (the link) is. I suppose it is rather off putting if you were expected to hear early music in classical sense. Catherine Bott remarked when she presented a concert from an early music festival (from Greenwich?) where L'Arpeggiata was performing (could have been a song from the same project): ‘(phew) yes, this is Early Music Show’.

[David Underdown]

The Proms archive will hopefully be updated, even if the concert page is not