World Class - Sarasa, a new American baroque ensemble - discovered

by John Bell Young

(A review of Sarasa's CD, A Baroque Mosaic) in Music & Vision, December 4, 2002 [longer version here]

A Baroque Mosaic.
Biber: Partita No. 5; Vivaldi: Concerto for sopranino recorder in C major; Purcell:"Sweeter than Roses"; Chaconne in G minor; Bach: Italian
Concerto; Handel: Cantata Il delirio amoroso HWV 99
Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble

Early music devotees, take note: an exemplary new Boston based ensemble that calls itself Sarasa may well be the most exciting thing to happen to baroque music since William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Its calling card is a handsomely packaged disc devoted to works of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Purcell and Biber.

Given the impressive individual credentials of Sarasa's musicians, that comes as no surprise. They are without exception leading authorities on baroque performance practice; many of them are proteges of Harnoncourt, Leonhardt and other great leaders of the early music movement. It may be that what informs their extraordinary ensemble playing, awash in collegial geniality and near telepathic familiarity, is a consequence of life-long friendships fostered among them decades ago in Vermont.

Sarasa's musicianship, pristinely informed, demonstrates just how vigorous and expressive this repertoire can be. Neither given to fetishising it as a timid academic exercise, nor satisfied, as less informed players so often are, to render it with mechanical dispatch, Sarasa brings the music to life.

The underlying aesthetics of the baroque era sought to duplicate speech rhythms as it fashioned musical dialogues. This was in turn influenced by the nature and limitations of the instruments. For example, the shorter bows of the time demanded an approach to string playing that influenced rhythm, articulation and affective inflection. Thus, when Sarasa, informed by scholarship as well as tradition, knowingly launches into a new phrase period or idea, it avails itself of exceptionally subtle dynamic shifts that draw us into each new compositional event. At the same time it rejects any academic posturing in favor of playing that is extraordinarily vigorous, gutsy and vivacious.

Judging from the penetrating performances of violinists Elizabeth Blumenstock, Kinoch Early and Peggy Spencer, I would be hard pressed to recall anyone playing with such verve, gusto and finesse. Richard Earl's oboe playing, taut and deftly nuanced in the Handel cantata, is at once elegant and haunting . Emily van Evera delivers savvy, if somewhat breathy readings of Purcell's Sweeter than Roses, a composer who seems to suit her perfectly. Harpsichordist Maggie Cole, a smart and vivacious player, offers a superb account Bach's Italian Concerto, rendering the delicate inegale of the slow movement with knowing finesse. In Vivaldi's concerto for sopranino recorder Sarah Cantor demonstrates a kind of heightened sensibility that forsakes nothing of the work's lyrical demeanor. Cellist and Sarasa founder Timothy Merton's full yet dulcet tone and rhythmic flexibility complements his ability to illuminate detail and pay tribute to nuance.

There is currently no major American city that can boast a world-class baroque ensemble, though several, play host to visiting groups from abroad. In these uncertain times, to have access to this kind of informed and impassioned music making, with a group of Sarasa's quality, would be an invaluable contribution to American musical life.

Grade: A+