United Kingdom Three Choirs Festival 2023 [1] – JS Bach, CPE Bach, Petzold, Couperin, Habibian, ‘For Anna Magdalena’: Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord). Holy Trinity Church, Longlevens, Gloucester, 22.7.2023. (JQ)
‘For Anna Magdalena’
JS Bach – Chorale in F ‘Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille’; Aria ‘So oft ich meine Tobackspfeife’; Aria ‘Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke’; Aria ‘Willst du dein Herz mir schenken’ (Aria di Giovannini); – Musette in D; Cantata ‘Ich habe genug’ (in the version transmitted in the AMB, 1725)
Petzold – Minuet in G; Minuet in G minor
Couperin – Rondeau in B flat minor (Les Bergeries, 6e Ordre)
Nilufar Habibian – Az nahāyate tāriki (premiere)
CPE Bach – Solo per il cembalo in E-flat major; Two Polonaises in G minor
Usually, I begin my coverage of any Three Choirs Festival with the choral/orchestral concert on the opening night. However, there were several factors which drew me to this Saturday afternoon event. For one thing, the venue is situated less than a mile from my home and the opportunity to hear one of my favourites among today’s singers performing right on my doorstep, as it were, was far too tempting to resist. I have not previously heard the distinguished harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in recital, so this was an opportunity to put that omission right. Also, with the exception of the JS Bach vocal items, the programme lay outside my normal ‘comfort zone’; so, that challenge appealed to me. Furthermore, to my surprise, this event was the only concert in the entire Festival week which could be listed under the category of a song recital.
Holy Trinity Church proved to be an ideal venue for this recital. The church, which was constructed in 1933/34, is brick built and has quite a long, high nave. The acoustic is kindly, with a pleasing resonance which put additional bloom on Carolyn Sampson’s voice and allowed the harpsichord to be clearly heard.
This programme was built around the second of two notebooks of music compiled by Johann Sebastian Bach which he dedicated to his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach (1701-1760), who he had married in 1721. This second book, in which Bach also included music by other composers, bore her monograph, A[nna] M[agdal] B[ach] and the date 1725. Esfahani told us that although he and Sampson have been friends for some years this was their first recital together. The programme included pieces that appear on their newly released Hyperion CD, ‘Notebooks for Anna Magdalena’ (CDA68387); I have not yet heard this disc but immediately after this recital I ordered a copy.
Sampson and Esfahani began with two ‘sets’ of three pieces, in each of which vocal items by Bach framed a harpsichord solo by another composer. In set one, Bach’s Chorale ‘Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille’ served notice that Sampson was in fine voice; she sang expressively and with silvery brightness to her tone. Petzold’s G major Minuet is very well known and Esfahani interwove it with its G minor companion very pleasingly. The aria ‘So oft ich meine Tobackspfeife’ seemed to me to have some mild thematic affinity with the Petzold, but perhaps that was just my imagination. The aria is essentially strophic and I liked the way that both musicians varied each verse. Here, the soprano communicated with the audience in a very natural way, as she was to do throughout the afternoon,
In the second set we heard Couperin’s Rondeau in B flat framed by the arias, ‘Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke’ and ‘Willst du dein Herz mir schenken’. This was an interesting juxtaposition; it was intriguing to hear Esfahani’s skilful and imaginative account of the florid Couperin piece bookended by Bach.
The first half closed with the first performance of a new work by Nilufar Habibian, who, like Mahan Esfahani, is Iranian-born. This piece was commissioned for this recital. Habibian is a composer of acoustic and electronic music, an award-winning qanun-player and an improviser; she is now based in London. She studied initially at Tehran Music Conservatoire where she studied Persian classical music. Subsequently, she studied music at Royal Holloway University of London and was awarded a Master’s degree in composition from Guildhall School of Music. Her cycle of three songs Az nahāyate tāriki (‘From the deep end of darkness’) sets Persian language poems by the Iranian modernist female poet, Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967). The programme note included the composer’s statement that this new work was inspired by ‘[the]’Women, Life, Freedom’ movement in Iran and is dedicated to all the brave and freedom-loving Iranian women’. When Sampson read this out as part of her spoken introduction to the work the audience burst into warm spontaneous applause; rightly, the oppression endured by Iranian women since the Islamic Revolution elicited much sympathy here.
There was no question that in this work Esfahani would be ‘just’ the accompanist; this was very much a composition for two equal artists. Habibian did not often require Esfahani to play his instrument in the traditional way by using the keys; instead, much of the harpsichord part called upon him to reach inside the casing to strike or stroke the strings; in the second of the three poems he was instructed to knock frequently on the wood of the case. The overall result was that he and the composer conjured up a wide variety of unexpected and atmospheric sounds from the harpsichord with the instrument very much used percussively. Esfahani’s participation went further, though. In the second poem, ‘Cherā?’ (‘Why?’) so far as I could tell, following an unfamiliar language at first hearing, it was he who spoke the text which Sampson frequently punctuated by singing the word ‘Cherā?’, with increasing fervour and urgency.
The first of the three poems, ‘Az nahāyate tāriki’ was set to music that was dark and oppressive in character; this was fitting, given the nature of the poem and the overall trajectory of the cycle from darkness to light. I think it was significant that Sampson was required to sing at the lower end of her vocal register throughout; only the last note of the setting was a high one. Much of her singing was delivered through cupped hands. Initially, I thought this was merely the use of a vocal technique but the persistent use of this style of singing suggested something more. Subsequently I talked about the work with a fellow audience member who speculated that the cupped hands – and inevitable muting of the voice – might symbolise the covert way in which many Iranian women feel obliged to communicate with each other nowadays; I think that seems very plausible. After ‘Cherā?’ the cycle closed with ‘Be āftāb salāmi dobāre khāham dād’ (‘I will greet the sun again’). The mood of this poem is one of determination to be positive, but in Habibian’s musical setting there was no hint of a triumph easily won. Rather, the music seemed to me to emphasise what a struggle it will be to reach the point where the woman whose thoughts are voiced in the poem overcomes the obstacles life places in her path. Perhaps it was significant that Sampson recited the words (albeit in a very musical fashion); had the composer directed that the words simply be sung, that might have been too easy a solution in this context. Sampson’s recitation was very intense, almost operatic in its delivery.
Az nahāyate tāriki is technically and emotionally challenging; listening to it is far from a comfortable experience – nor should it be, given the intention behind the work. Both artists performed this inventive music with evident commitment and technical accomplishment. The first performance was warmly greeted by the audience, as was the composer when she joined the performers to acknowledge the applause. I wondered where this piece fitted in to the rest of the programme. Stylistically it was, to paraphrase John Donne, ‘an island entire unto itself’. Of course, the programme was built around a woman: Anna Magdalena Bach. A colleague suggested to me in the interval that perhaps the intention was to contrast the fairly comfortable life of Anna Magdalena with the far from comfortable life of many women in contemporary Iran. That seems plausible to me. On a first hearing, this is a work I admire – not least for its intentions – rather than love. Were I to hear it again there is a strong argument for listening to a recording in order to follow the words as closely as possible. However, that would mean sacrificing the visual element of seeing the artists engage with the music and, through their engagement, draw in the listeners, as happened on this occasion.
The second half began with a group of harpsichord pieces in which Bach’s short Musette, given a highly energetic performance, was sandwiched between the two G minor Polonaises of his son, Emanuel. I very much liked Emanuel’s Solo per il cembalo in E-flat major, in which Esfahani’s playing sparkled. There then followed an extra group of three pieces. Unfortunately, though Esfahani spoke about the extra items, he didn’t actually specify what they were beyond the fact that a Bach Chorale Prelude would be framed by two vocal pieces. In his measured performance, the Chorale Prelude was richly decorated. The one item in this well-matched trio of pieces that I could readily identify was the last one: the celebrated ‘Bist du bei mir’ by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749). Apart from the sheer pleasure of hearing Sampson’s effortlessly expressive singing of this popular aria, its inclusion was appropriate since I am looking forward to when the Festival will this year offer a very rare opportunity to hear Stölzel’s oratorio Die leidende und am Creutz sterbende Liebe Jesu.
The last item on the programme was the cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82. In the version in the Anna Magdalena notebook the accompaniment is for keyboard only; so, we missed the plangent oboe (or flute) obbligato, but there were ample compensations in this performance. In fact, in this version the instrumental introduction was extremely brief; we were quickly plunged into the opening aria, ‘Ich habe genug’, in which I greatly admired Sampson’s seamless vocal line. In the recitative that followed she offered an object lesson in how to bring a text vividly to life. At the heart of the cantata lies the celebrated aria ‘Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen’. The rendition of this aria was, quite simply, the highlight of the entire afternoon. Sampson spun a gorgeous vocal line and treated us to an exquisite performance during which Esfahani offered perceptive support. The concluding aria, ‘Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod’ is a joyful acceptance of death as a release from earthly tribulation. Here, it received an agile, happy performance from both artists; they made Bach’s music sparkle.
After such a recital there was no way the appreciative audience were going to allow the performers to leave it at that. We were treated to one, well-chosen encore in the shape of the short aria, Schaffs mit mir, Gott, BWV514. This lovely little piece was given a simple and touching performance.
This was a richly rewarding recital given by two wonderful artists who clearly enjoyed performing together – and striking musical sparks off each other. It was an auspicious opening to a week of music-making in Gloucester
John Quinn