Tempesta di Mare at the Barnes

Listeners with rigid ideas about concert behavior wouldn't have been happy with Tempesta di Mare's first appearance at the Barnes Foundation's new home on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

Tempesta's chamber players provided the entertainment at a "First Friday" event that included informal wining and dining. People picked up food and brought it back to their tables; the catering staff bustled about, removing used containers; and groups of visitors entered and departed all through the program.

The audience even applauded between movements— a violation of modern traditions that suggests the members of the visual arts audience may not attend many concerts.

None of that bothered me. Most of the secular Baroque music that Tempesta plays was created well before formal concerts became the normal way to hear music. Informal settings suit the music.

Nor do I have a problem with people applauding between movements. Concertgoers did it all the time up through much of the 19th Century, according to many accounts.

Oversized hall

On the other hand, I was dismayed when I discovered the musicians were playing in a space the size of a typical gymnasium, so that their intimate work had to be amplified. Tempesta will present a recital series at the Barnes starting in October, and I was afraid we were getting a preview.

Fortunately, Tempesta's co-director Gwyn Roberts relieved me of that concern: The recital series, she said, will take place in another hall on the lower level, presumably without microphones and loudspeakers.

With that bit of fretting out of the way, I could even admit that the amplification was handled with taste and restraint. At times the technician misjudged the proper balance of an instrument, but he avoided the cardinal sin of contemporary sound managers: He apparently understood that lutes and Baroque violins aren't supposed to hammer at your eardrums like sustained artillery fire.

Pushing the tempos

The program essentially constituted an advertisement for the coming recital series, and the audience got a good look at Tempesta's virtues. Gwyn Roberts produced recorder passages notable for the intensity she created by pushing the tempos. Emlyn Ngai played the Baroque violin with his customary style and aplomb.

Richard Stone played two lengthy lute pieces and joined harpsichordist Adam Pearl in a novelty— a duet for two plucked instruments with notably different styles and techniques.

Now, about that move

This was my first visit to the new Barnes building, and I didn't see much of it. But I doubt that a full exposure will change my belief that the Barnes Foundation's move to downtown Philadelphia was a move in the right direction.

I have no opinion about (and little interest in) the legal and artistic issues concerning the move. My opinion is based on the view I expressed in my 2010 BSR review of David Owen's Green Metropolis: What's good for cities is good for the world. City living is inherently efficient. City dwellers use less energy per capita than people who pursue other life styles.

The new Barnes adds a world-famous destination to a complex that already included the Art Museum, the Rodin and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It makes Philadelphia a more attractive place to live, work and visit. Anything that makes a big city more attractive increases the odds that our civilization will survive the perils linked to the benefits of technological and economic development.♦


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