Buxtehude Consort's religious cantatas

One of my personal frets is the mismatch between the tourist season and the music season. I think it's reasonable to assume some of the people who visit Independence National Park might be interested in hearing local groups like Philomel and Tempesta di Mare perform music from the 17th and 18th Centuries on the kind of instruments Franklin and Jefferson actually listened to. Unfortunately, the tourists flock to Philadelphia in the summer and our musicians serenade us during the rest of the year.

In the last few years, in fact, the music season has grown steadily shorter. When I first started reviewing 20 years ago, many local groups held their first concerts in late September, and the Mostly Mozart Festival extended its season into late June. Today most of the period instrument and chamber music series start in October and end in May. Tourists who fancy Beethoven's string quartets are just as neglected as tourists who might be attracted to harpsichords and viola da gambas.

This decline in summer musical activity once made sense. Nowadays, however, most of our concert venues have installed a magical device that pulls the excess moisture out of the Philadelphia air and lowers its temperature.

The Orchestra's longer season

This year, Philadelphians were blessed with a reversal of the long-term trend. The Philadelphia Orchestra played its last concert on June 21 and followed that with three of its post-season "Best Of" concerts as well as a chamber music concert on June 28. The Opera Company, The Crossing, Dolce Suono and the Concert Operetta series all scheduled concerts in June, and the Hidden City Arts Festival added additional heft to the schedule.

We even gained a new early-music group. The Buxtehude Consort represents a response to the current recession that should delight all exponents of Good Old American Grit and Gumption. The Consort's musicians recognized that many music organizations are staring at shrinking budgets, so they decided to roll up their sleeves and create their own employment opportunities.

Bach walked 200 miles

As all Baroque enthusiasts know, Bach walked over 200 miles to hear Dietrich Buxtehude's music. Buxtehude was a major influence on Bach and Handel, and he's a composer worth listening to in his own right. The five religious cantatas the Consort performed at its opening program were quiet, perfectly crafted gems that enhanced the interactions of the vocal lines with unexpected pleasures, such as sprightly violin accompaniments.

The concert suffered two flaws worth mentioning. One was a matter of style: Both female singers upped the decibel level every time they made a big upward jump in pitch. This music clearly sounds better when the vocalists maintain an even setting on the volume control.

The evening would have benefited, in addition, from a little more attention to showmanship. If I'd planned the program, for example, I would have switched the last two pieces. An upbeat item like Sing Unto the Lord a New Song makes a better closing than My Desire is to Depart, which expresses a longing for death and could lead to unwanted witticisms from less reverent audience members.

The perfect setting

But those are the kind of snags a good music group can fix as it gains experience. If any tourists made it to St. Mark's, they got to hear some beautiful music performed in a perfect setting. St. Mark's dates from the mid-19th Century, but it's based on older European models, and it's particularly appropriate for a program that recreated some of the atmosphere of a vespers service.

The people who did attend the concert constituted a good-size crowd, and they responded with the sort of appreciative applause that funding agencies and other music groups should think about. The city doesn't empty out in July and August. Some visitors may have interests that can't be satisfied with cheese steaks and a visit to the Liberty Bell.â—†


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