The Art of the Chalumeau

Daniel Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA

www.astonmagna.org

June 16, 2013

by Barbara Stroup

After a cold winter and a wet spring, Aston Magna returned to the Berkshires with the best in chamber music - the pleasing combination of strings, winds and voice. Offering a rare glimpse at an obscure instrument, the ensemble provided guest artist Eric Hoeprich with respectful support in both programming and musicianship. In Hoeprich’s hands, the chalemeau is an instrument that can enter mysteriously from the background texture, rivaling the voice in its soul-touching sound. The range of this small instrument belies its size, and the artist achieved a balanced timbre throughout. Paired with the oboe in a short work by Johann Adolph Hasse, the combination was ethereal. One wishes again that, like other neglected early instruments, audiences could hear much more from chalemeau players.

The program opened without the wind instruments with a Vivaldi work in three parts. Artistic Director Daniel Stepner’s leadership, particularly at the cadenzas, gave the notes a chance to linger in the air and gave the audience a change to savor them. It was a pleasure to be able to follow Vivaldi’s fugal theme, as players took turns getting “out of the way” so it could be highlighted.

The evening’s ensemble included a continuo section of three: violone, baroque cello, and theorbo. The group was a perfect combination throughout the varied program of arias, concerti, and other short works and the balance throughout was impeccably maintained, regardless of the number of voices.

Soprano Kristen Watson joined the instrumentalists for several pieces from Handel and Vivaldi, and for the closing Cantata by Francesco Conti. Her instrument excellently matched the ensemble. She seemed to particularly enjoy the opportunities to ‘converse’ with the chalemeau when Hoeprich and she were paired.

Baroque oboeist Steven Hammer brought a masterful technique to the familiar Marcello Concerto, ending the first half of the program with rapid passage-work and flying fingers. All three featured artists had so much command of technique that they could put the audience at ease with their musicianship. The program was a delightful mix and it is hoped that a recording might be issued, because the term “chalemeau” on iTunes results in only ONE find.

The Disappearing Woman

Berkshire Fringe
Daniel Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA
www.berkshirefringe.org
August 3, 2009
by Emily List

The Disappearing Woman was a visually captivating collaboration between four acclaimed performers and the digital media practices that drive their actions. The program, choreographed and danced by Nell Breyer, Alissa Cardone, Lorraine Chapman and Bronwen MacArthur, addressed problems of self-expression in a world where the self is constantly manipulated and reconstructed through video-imagery, digital photos and other technological forms. Just as images of the dancers were elongated, fragmented, inverted and projected on the walls of the auditorium, the women's movements constantly shifted in nature, from elastic arm extensions and fluid arabesques to stilted, jarring walks and violent drops to the floor. More often than not, digital media threatened to envelope the human forms completely.

The ways that digital media can lead to the disappearance of the individual self was a strong message projected throughout the show. Equally strong was the idea of transparency. Immediately upon entering the theatre, the audien was subjected to mediated self-scrutiny, a live-video recording capturing images of the spectators entering the space reflected on a screen opposite the seating area. In a dance that is punctuated by sharply executed pivots and elbow-jabs, the four women moved to the recording of a cell-phone message. At first, the words stood out and it was possible to follow the speaker's train of thought. As time went on and the dance and the message became more harried, the movement and the words blended together, the anxious babbling becoming background noise that set the rhythm for the choreography.

The sound, designed by Justin Samaha, was largely dialogue spoken by the performers or the Slovenian author Renata Selcl, speaking on the "Tyranny of Choice." The Disappearing Woman, with its live and recorded video projections occurring simultaneously with the live choreography and frequent costume changes, presented the audience with the dilemma of choosing where to look at any given moment. While the digitally recorded dances provided a visually compelling backdrop, it would be a mistake to ignore the live performances that do not disappoint in their theatricality, technical precision and playful energy.