Thomas DiSarlo, Elin Frazier & Rainer Beckmann... 

In Conversation with Richard Shapp

(Read the interviews in the three sections following this introduction.)  

Valentin Radu loves the music of Antonio Vivaldi - who doesn't?

Well maybe there are a few curmudgeons out there who still contend that he didn't write 500 or so different and brilliant concertos, but that he only wrote one concerto 500 times with slight changes.  However, if there is such a musical killjoy in the region, he/she should come to the Vox Ama Deus Kimmel Center concert on Friday, February 4, because Valentin Radu and the Camerata Ama Deus Baroque instrument chamber orchestra certainly will change any holdout's mind.

At 8:00 PM in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater, Maestro Radu will raise his baton to lead the Camerata Ama Deus in a diverse mixture of chamber orchestra works by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), the famed Red Priest, virtuoso violinist, composer, musical innovator, Father of the Instrumental Concerto and educator of hundreds of orphan girls in Venice, Italy.  Center stage will be the marvelous musicians of Radu's Camerata Ama Deus.  On tap will be the Concerto for Flute in C Major performed by the German virtuoso Rainer Beckmann on the flute's older cousin, the soprano recorder.  Back by popular demand is concertmaster Thomas DiSarlo to reprise−and surpass−his enthralling 2009 performance of the immensely popular The Four Seasons.  Our brilliant first cellist, Vivian Barton Dozor, will be joined by Thomas Jackson and Tom DiSarlo for the D minor Concerto for Two Violins and Cello.  Rounding out Radu's program, the astounding Elin Frazier will transform Vivaldi's Oboe Concerto in D minor into an at times lyrical, at times bravura work for solo trumpet.

For nearly 20 years, Thomas DiSarlo has been the first-chair violin in practically every Vox Ama Deus concert conducted by Valentin Radu that required an orchestra.  The violinist who sits in the chair of the Concertmaster is far more than a lead-off hitter, or the one who plays any and all violin solos within an orchestral piece.  Working with the conductor, this artist assumes leadership roles the audience never (or should never) see.  And it has been my pleasure to have seen the way in which Valentin and Tom work together to shape, inspire and perfect the orchestras of Camerata Ama Deus and Ama Deus Ensemble.  And over these years, audience members too have gotten to know Tom, and he you.  This is a great relationship, but one that usually can be built only thanks to the audience-friendly, intimate settings of a Vox Ama Deus concert!

On February 4 at the Kimmel Center, back by popular demand, Tom will reprise his stunning performance of Vivaldi's immensely popular The Four Seasons.  His April 2009 performance, from the stage of the Perelman Theater, was recorded live by Lyrichord and can be purchased on line at www.VoxAmaDeus.org and clicking on the "store"button.

Richard A. Shapp:What are the important differences between the modern & Baroque instruments you play?  What were some of the forces that drove these changes?

Thomas DiSarlo: Between 1750 and 1840 the violin underwent many changes in response to demands from composers, performers and audiences.  Performers (as always!) wanted more power, responsiveness, brilliance and playability in high registers.  Composers and composer/performers wrote for more and more daring combinations of notes in higher registers on the instrument, often beyond the edge of the earlier-style fingerboard (defined below).  They also wrote longer works for larger forces in bigger venues.  And as music progressed through the Classical period to the Romantic-roughly 1750 to 1825-the musical gestures composers asked of instruments that had been handcrafted a century or more before, made the Baroque violin's structural setup particularly unsuitable to the growing sonic and technical demands.  By "structure" I refer to the bow, the fingerboard, the bridge and the strings.

As the makeup of audiences changed from 1750 on-newly rich and growing middle classes rubbing elbows with the secular and ecclesiastical aristocracies-the new consumers of music expected new things from composers and performers.  In particular, the rise of dramatic Romantic music, first in opera, and then in virtuoso concertos and large symphonies such as those of Beethoven, demanded the very increases in power, brilliance and range that performers also sought.

The "modern" violin as we have come to know it was first developed by the fabled Parisian violin maker Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798-1875) in the early 1800s.  His instruments (nearly 3,000 of them!) differed from the Baroque violin in several important ways:

First there is pitch.  In the Baroque era, tuning was not set at our standard pitch of A-440.  Rather an "A" ranged from about a ½ step lower to ¾ of a step lower.  Valentin has us tune to A-415, which is ½ step below modern pitch.  The direct effect of this lower pitch was to relax pressure on the top of the instrument and cause it to resonate more freely than our higher-pitched violins do now.  But it produced less volume and less dynamic range.  The strings also responded more slowly, necessitating a completely different bow technique for producing the most agreeable sound possible.

Then let's look at the all-important strings: Advances in string technology were primarily driven by the need for more sound and more reliable tuning.  The Baroque strings for violin were primarily made of plain, wound-strand sheep gut.  (Sorry Felix & Sylvester!)  Only after 1750 did strings with metal windings, which served to keep pitch more stable and could produce more sound, become widely available.

The physical setup was different too: Firstly, the Baroque violin generally had a thinner, more delicately shaped bridge than does the modern violin.  (The bridge is a very important, small piece of wood that holds the strings in place where the violinist places the bow.)  This, together with a thinner, internal vertical sound post (a small, wooden peg that both supports the top and bottom of the body of the violin and helps transmit sound), served to keep the Baroque violin reasonably responsive and resonant but did not transmit as much sound energy to the violin as do more modern bridge designs of the Vuillaume model.

Also, the Baroque violin neck and fingerboard were shorter and angled differently to the violin body.  (The neck is the piece of wood that runs from the body of the instrument to where the strings are attached to their tuning pegs.  The fingerboard is just that-the wood that runs up the center of the body of the violin to the bridge and where the fiddler's fingers work their magic with the strings.)  This served well enough for the less-stringent technical demands of most Baroque music but increasingly became an impediment to performance of more modern music. Again, Vuillaume standardized the length of the fingerboard and the length and angle of the neck.

The Baroque-era bow was a pike's-head affair, with a thinner stick and less tension than the more modern "hatchet-head" bows.  Additionally, the Baroque bow was not capable of the sustaining and volume-changing effects of more modern bows.  As violin technique advanced rapidly during the latter part of the 18^th century, new bow strokes and styles were invented by composers and performers that were beyond the capability of the Baroque bow.  A marked increase in bow length and hair tension occurred throughout the period from 1750-1825.  This change exactly mirrored the alterations in the structural configuration of the violin itself, as it became more powerful due to the increased resistance of modern strings and higher tuning.

RAS: Tom, how did these alterations to the older violin change the actual "technique" of playing?  What are some of the major differences?

TDiS: The technique of Baroque violin playing in general requires a completely different approach than that of modern instrument playing.  Lighter finger pressure on the strings is needed to keep the sound beautiful.  Bow strokes have to be much more finely begun and ended in order to "spin up" the string to the desired level of vibration and transition to the next note.  The best Baroque players were expected to express very fine gradations of tone in preference to undifferentiated loudness.

One of the most audible differences between Baroque violin and modern violin technique is the notable absence of vibrato, that continuous oscillation of the left hand and fingers, to produce a warmer, more human-voice-like sound that we now take for granted in modern violin playing.  But, contrary to much current Baroque practice, vibrato was actually widely known and understood during the Baroque era.  Its use, however, was generally as a "tasteful ornament" on longer notes.  Unfortunately, it was used by many players, as was the trill, to cover up bad intonation on long notes!  Players who insist on a sterilized, completely vibrato-free Baroque technique in solo works are cheating themselves-and their audiences too-out of a legitimate, period-authentic, expressive technique.

RAS: When did you begin picking up the violin and what made you stay with it?  What are some of the different family members that you play?

TDiS: I've played the violin from early childhood.  I fell in love with the violin the first day it was demonstrated to me and have played it ever since.  I concretize with the Baroque violin and the pardessus de viole, which is a diminutive, five-string member of the viol family that has frets and is tuned G-D-A-D-G.  The bottom three strings are tuned similarly to the violin.  Although I played recitals and concerts on the viola as well as the violin, in 2002 I retired from the viola, preferring instead to devote all my musical efforts to the violin.

            RAS: Do you perform on any other instruments?

TDiS: I do not. However, I was a serious horn player throughout junior high school and high school and considered a professional career as a hornist.

RAS: Modern or Baroque - generally which is easier to use in performance?  And if one is more agreeable to perform on, why choose the other?

TDiS: No question here-the modern violin is modern for a reason.  It's more powerful, more responsive, easier to keep in tune.  It's more comfortable-due to the chin rest-to hold.

But for me and so many other musicians, the impetus to use period-faithful instruments is primarily to understand and enjoy the expressive range and unique sound that was available to players at the time.  Violins did not have fine tuners, chin rests, long, heavy bows, metal strings, shoulder rests.  Brass instruments did not have valves.  Woodwind instruments were basically-including the flute-wood with holes (except for the stray metal key here and there-a novelty).  As a result, the only reason to play Baroque instruments, in my view, is to be comfortable in the knowledge that the things the instrument "does" are pretty much what a reasonably skilled player in 1725 would have experienced.  It's hard to make modern or Romantic-period musical gestures on period-authentic instruments.  That's the appeal to me.  Modern instruments can be used to play Baroque works beautifully and compellingly, but the theoretical what-the-Baroque-instrument-limit-was is very easily exceeded in volume and penetration, especially on wind and brass instruments.

RAS: Tell me your thoughts on improvisation and ornamentation: why it is so important in Baroque music and how you developed your skills in this?  I often think of it in terms of jazz.

TDiS: Improvisation and ornamentation in Baroque music proceed from an entirely different mindset from that of jazz.  The musical "framework" of a Baroque-era composition differs fundamentally from the unwritten structure of most early jazz.  However, I am not diminishing the similarities between Baroque music and jazz when considering the musical skills required of the performer.  The range of knowledge of nationalistic styles, period-authentic ornaments, and general stylishness, taste, and artistry required to bring off convincing improvisation in Baroque music is daunting.  There are a decent number of period source materials available on certain styles of ornamentation, and some excellent scholarly works available for study, but in reality, artistry and experience are the prime determinants of the appropriateness and success of most improvisatory and ornamental efforts.

RAS: How did you begin with Vox Ama Deus, and what are some of the highlights of your association with Valentin Radu and Vox Ama Deus.

TDiS: I first met Valentin at Moravian College in 1990.  I had been engaged by him to play in a performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.  Little did I know that the orchestra consisted of one player on a part!  Needless to say, that developed into a twenty-year relationship in which every concert becomes a highlight over the last.

RAS: And finally, Tom, what are some thoughts about The Four Seasons and its formidable, famous and virtuosic solo part?

TDiS: I tried to develop an interpretation of Le quattro stagioni that was as free of modernisms, gimmicks, and distortions as possible.  I also wanted to communicate my passion for the music.  I hope both were achieved and will be evident again on February 4.

            RAS: In bocca al lupo! (Good luck!)

I caught up with Elin a few days ago to discuss her take on the practice of transcribing a work originally written for one instrument and crafting it for performance on another.  And in case the reader thinks this is a modern act of artistic chutzpah, Elin noted that transcribing was a well-established Baroque practice.  For example, none other than J.S. Bach transcribed Vivaldi's music−an act of homage−as the former was honing his skills and expanding his musical horizons.

[ Interviewer's note: Even Beethoven did this form of musical recycling to his own work!  Have you ever heard his complete...as opposed to incomplete...6^th Piano Concerto?!?  I'll arrange to send two complimentary tickets to the February 4^th concert to the first person who responds by e-mail with the correct answer of what Beethoven work became a piano concerto.  No Vox musicians, staff members, Board members or their family members or significant others allowed to enter! ]

"This Vivaldi concerto," began Elin, "is a transcription of a beautiful work for oboe with luscious chromatic passages for the oboe's lower register.  These notes cannot be played on a valve-less Baroque trumpet.  And while we are on this subject let's discuss..."

To Valve, Or Not To Valve, That Is The Question?!?

We briefly reminisced about the good old days when Messiahsaurus Rex and the Wooly Brandenburgadons dominated the concert halls of the world...an age when many of our conservatory colleagues or instructors openly snickered at the idea of historically based performance practice.  But soon a light shone round about us.  Ultra-scholarly approaches were in the ascendant and it became de rigueur to applaud only the Emperor's New Sonic Clothing.  Naturally many of "our generation" thought that "we" alone had "rediscovered" lost treasures and were the first to do so.  Not true.

Elin talked about the 1829ish "Bach revival" for which Felix Mendelssohn is given credit.  "It may seem strange to us, but the music of so many of the Baroque masters we take for granted and enjoy, was little remembered by Mendelssohn's contemporaries."  In a lengthy conversation with members of the ground-breaking "early" music ensemble I Musici this writer was honored to have had, they commented how little Vivaldi was performed when they began their work in the musical trenches about 60 years ago!  Although fugues, vestiges of faded glory, were employed by Classic- and Romantic-era symphonists and oratorio composers, much music of previous epochs lay on dusty shelves or in locked trunks, forgotten and unperformed.  But pursuant to Mendelssohn's prodding, and championing by others, slowly a renewed interest in the music of Bach and Handel and others grew.  About 15 years before this revival began its long journey, the perfecting of brass instruments with valves had taken hold.  The time was ripe for innovation grounded in modern science.

Why Valves?

Elin says there are six basic classifications of instruments: 1) Indigenous or Prototypes; 2) Period Instruments from a specific era; 3) Historical Instruments which often are collectors' items, like old hunting horns or transportation horns; 4) Antique Instruments, which generally are considered to have been made at least 50 years prior to "today;" 5) Modern Instruments, which are easily purchased in shops; and, 6) Cross-Over Instruments that very well may be used to perform the music of an adjoining period, i.e., a Baroque violin to perform Palestrina or Mozart.

"For centuries the brass were natural instruments and sounded the 'natural' notes of the laws of nature and physics.  To change keys, the player relied upon different-length pieces of plumbing to insert in the instrument, and/or lip and breath control to play notes not in the natural overtone series.  These pieces of plumbing are called crooks.  Unlike the oboe or recorder, brass instruments were not equipped with numerous holes to allow for a wide range of tonal adjustments.  Nor did they have the flexibility of a stringed instrument, where the artist's fingers could rapidly make fine adjustments of the notes to be played.

"But the idea of being able to rapidly shorten or lengthen the air column, giving a brass family member greater flexibility as to the keys it could play in, or the notes it could rapidly produce with more assurance of not splattering them, was something that brass instrument makers strove to create.  This is where the valves come on the scene during the early 1800s.  Pressing down on a valve's piston effectively changes the length of the instrument's air column. This allows the artist to play chromatics and usually hit those previously impossible notes."

Elin then spoke about one of the giant names from this early age of handcraftsmanship that experimented with adding valves to brass instruments.  This was the Belgian Mahillon family (father and three sons) which opened its shop in Brussels in 1836.  During previous Camerata Ama Deus concerts Elin has talked about the Mahillon trumpets and the amazing one-of-a-kind, 4-valve, 4-foot long Mahillon trumpet that is in her personal collection.  It is with this trumpet Elin will perform the Vivaldi concerto.

"Another giant from the 19^th century trumpet world was the Belgian super virtuoso and etude composer, Théo Charlier (1868-1944).  He was the Maurice André of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries."

Théo Charlier was the daring virtuoso who, on April 17, 1898, revived what was considered to be the unplayable Bach 2^nd Brandenburg Concerto...the one with the fiendishly difficult trumpet solo (known to many as William F. Buckley's theme music).  It was the Mahillon Family shop that handcrafted the special trumpet that Charlier used when, on several occasions, he performed this daunting Bach opus.  In fact a contemporary commentator praised Charlier that "he was not afraid to have a special instrument made by MM. Mahillon, the skilled instrument makers of Brussels."  It was la petite trompette...the Piccolo Trumpet.

Elin continued, "The Mahillon trumpet I love to use is called a Clarino... a clarion sounding trumpet.  But this Mahillon 4-valve beauty produces a smaller, bell-like, clarion, singing sound that is fully capable of playing chromatics.  Yes - it has a clarion quality, but it is not a brash, blatty sound.  And it was designed specifically to perform the Baroque revival music.  It is pitched at the "old" pitch of A-415, which is one-half step lower than the modern concert pitch of A-440.  This is the pitch Maestro has the Camerata Ama Deus tuned to.

"And since the man who first performed the 2^nd Brandenburg Concerto following the revival used a Mahillon trumpet, I feel perfectly comfortable in using my historical, antique, prototype Mahillon trumpet to perform our transcription of Vivaldi's Oboe Concerto in D minor!"

The Messiah Connection

Several years ago, Elin was invited to perform as trumpeter for Vox Ama Deus's Messiah.  "During that performance, a musical match was made and I have been so pleased to have been Valentin's principal trumpeter for about six years."

"I think that Valentin Radu's Messiah interpretation is his great musical gift to the world.  He illuminates the musical and spiritual meaning that underlies this timeless message.  And he does this by emphasizing the dramatic sense of the text with daring musical contrasts and ideas that most of us never experience in other more conventional performances."

Exquisite Ornamentationalist  

Concerto per Flautino in G major, RV 443

Valentin Radu invited Rainer Beckmann to join the Vox Ama Deus team for the Vox Renaissance Consort Fall Harvest concert in September 2009.  This writer first experienced Rainer's musical magic a few months later during the Consort's Renaissance Noël concerts.  I was captivated (as were we all!) by Rainer's astounding interpretation of "Greensleeves"-an old chestnut we all thought we knew until we heard the new life and joy Rainer brought to it!  This ear-opening and heart-lifting performance is available to you on Vox's Lyrichord compact disc, Renaissance Noël, which can be purchased on-line at www.VoxAmaDeus.org and clicking on the "store" button.

Rainer is currently concertizing in Europe, so we needed to chat via the internet in a rather formal Q-&-A format.

Richard A. Shapp: What are the important differences between the modern and Baroque instruments that you play?

Rainer Beckmann: One of the interesting things about the recorder is that there is basically no difference between a Baroque recorder and a modern recorder.  Baroque recorders are generally copies of historic instruments; modern instruments look very much like these copies and are only slightly altered to serve the special needs of 20^th- and 21^st-century music.  The fact that the modern recorder is basically a Baroque recorder relates to the history of the instrument.  The recorder grew out of fashion in the middle of the 18^th century, and it was only from the beginning of the 20^th century onward that professional musicians and composers again grew interested in the instrument and its historic repertoire.

RAS: What are the different varieties of instruments within the recorder family that you play?  Do they have specific descriptive names due to their size, pitch, range, sound quality, etc?  Is one easier to play than the other?

RB: In Italy the recorder is called flauto dolce, the "sweet flute."  Obviously the adjective here refers to the sound quality of the instrument.  I often like to refer to the warm and embracing sound of the recorder.

Historic instruments include recorders for music written before 1400, Renaissance recorders, transitional instruments for early 17^th-century music and Baroque recorders. They come in many different sizes.

Recorders from different historic periods differ in outer design, general shape of the bore (i.e., the hole inside the instrument housing the air column), voicing, wood used, fingering positions of the holes on the outside of the recorder that allow you to play different notes, ranges high and low, tuning, and sound quality in general. For example, Renaissance recorders were generally made from maple, have the range of an octave and a sixth (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La) and produce a rather mellow sound with full low notes. They were designed as ensemble instruments, intended to blend well with other instruments.  Recorders of the later Baroque period were often made from boxwood (which is much harder than maple), have a range of more than two octaves, and were designed rather to be solo instruments with brilliant-sounding high notes.

Today, the most widely used recorders are the soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders.  But there also are much bigger, lower-sounding instruments like the sub-bass recorder; while on the other end of the scale, there also are smaller, higher-sounding ones like the sopranino and garklein floetlein (Italian and German, respectively, meaning very small flute, which in turn means very high flute).

And specialists also play Baroque recorders such as the Voice Flute, Fourth Flute, Sixth Flute, Alto in G, etc., which are instrument sizes in between the standard ones I just mentioned.

RAS: How long have you been playing recorder?  What drew you to this particular family of instruments and why do you prefer to play them instead of some other instrument?

RB: I began playing the recorder at about age seven. I always loved and identified very much with the sound of the recorder.  I also like the recorder´s simplicity, its quick response, directness of articulation, the way it resonates, and its subtle palette of colors.

RAS: Do you perform on any other instruments outside of these?

RB: In the past I have also performed on the harpsichord.

RAS: Rainer, I also asked Elin Frazier this question: Why and how do you select one particular recorder over another to perform certain repertoire?

RB: Let´s focus on Baroque music here.  When I play a piece by JS Bach, for example, I might choose an instrument that allows me to nicely bring out all the passage work in Bach´s music, for instance, a copy of an historical instrument crafted by the German maker J. Denner.  When I play a piece by an Italian composer, I might choose an instrument that helps me bring out the expressive and extrovert qualities of the music, like a copy of an historical recorder by the Dutch maker J. Steenbergen.  When I play a piece by Handel, I might choose a copy of an instrument by a builder who lived in London in the time of Handel, like T. Stanesby Sen.  If I play with a modern orchestra, I probably will choose the loudest instrument available!

The bottom line is that my choice takes into account the national style of the music, the style of the period in general, the key of the piece and the range of the recorder part.  Then there are other factors that must be considered like the instrumentation of the work, and don't forget the acoustics and size of the actual performance space, which often are far different from the ones the composer had in mind.

RAS: When I was earning a masters in music history the matter of improvisation and ornamentation were hot, quasi-mysterious topics.  Why are these so important in Renaissance and Baroque music, and how did you develop your skills in these?

RB: I regard ornamentation as one of the means at my disposal as an interpreter to make a piece of music really "mine."  Ornamentation gives the performer the possibility to add variety and to bring to life the affect* of the music.  Some pieces or movements are certainly more inviting to ornamentation than others.  Luckily, we have many examples of 17^th- and 18^th-century music ornamented by the composer himself.  These examples, as well as information from treatises by other musicians from various periods, are very helpful in developing one's own tasteful and skillful style of ornamentation.  [* The Doctrine of Affects is generally defined as a late-Baroque-period (ca. 1700-1750) aesthetic theory that described about two dozen human attributes and emotions, e.g., love, hate, despair, joy, courage, even the drops of blood shed by Christ during the crucifixion, etc, and how they should be expressed in music.]

RAS: How did you become associated with Valentin Radu and Vox Ama Deus, and what are some of the highlights of this association?

RB: My first project with Vox was the Renaissance Harvest program in September 2009.  I was very moved by the enthusiastic audience response to the Spanish dance music by Diego Ortiz that we performed with recorder, cello and theorbo.  Other highlights were the recent Renaissance Noël concert at Longwood Gardens and a wine-tasting fundraiser last year when Valentin and I performed together on harpsichord and recorder in a lovely historic home on the Main Line.

RAS: Rainer, a few final questions and I'll let you get back to your European tour.  Please tell me about the Renaissance Noël recording.  How was this CD important to you?  What new repertoire are you taking on?  How does the Vivaldi Concerto in Gchallenge and appeal to you and the audience?

RB: I absolutely love the repertoire on the Renaissance Noël CD.  My personal favorite is the Henry Purcell Christmas motet, "Behold, I Bring You Glad Tidings."  It was also a special treat to record "Greensleeves" as an instrumental solo.

I have recently have played a lot of Telemann concertos and additional Vivaldi chamber music.  So it´s fun now to do with Valentin and my colleagues in the Camerata Ama Deus one of Vivaldi´s celebrated recorder concertos. The Concerto per Flautino in G Major is one of the all-time recorder favorites with audiences and performers alike.  The two virtuosic and sparkling outer movements frame a gorgeous cantilena* that makes you dream of a romantic gondola ride in Venice.  (* Cantilena is a vocal melody distinguished by its singing, lyrical nature in contrast to a musical line that is dramatic or virtuosic in nature.)

The Concerto per Flautino is traditionally performed on a sopranino recorder. However, we are going to perform the work on the slightly bigger and lower soprano recorder as suggested by more recent research into the meaning of the word flautino and Vivaldi´s performance directions on the autograph. The lower-ranged soprano recorder certainly underlines the pastoral character of the slow movement and allows the accompanying violins to perform in the register they normally use during Vivaldi concertos, and not in an unusually high register as in the sopranino version.

RAS: Rainer, thank you very much for your time; see you in Philadelphia soon.