SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

 Handel, Newman, Bach, Couperin: Anthony Newman, harpsichord, PianoSummer Festival at the State University of New Paltz, NY 25.7.2009 (SSM)


For the last 14 years, the State University at New Paltz, NY has been hosting their “PianoSummer Festival.” Founded and directed by Vladimir Feltsman, it brings together young musicians for several weeks of master classes, piano competitions, lectures and public recitals. The music performed ranges from Bach to contemporary, often with an emphasis on Russian music. So, it was with some pleasant surprise, to see the Baroque specialist Anthony Newman's name as a guest lecturer and recitalist.

Touted as “The High Priest of the Harpsichord ” (Time Magazine) and as being “without question America's foremost Baroque interpreter” (program notes), I wondered how I had missed him over his 40 year career. There aren't a whole lot of globally prominent American harpsichordists these days and many of those that are (were) went off to perform and conduct in Europe (Alan Curtis, Scott Ross, William Christie.) I thought back to the 60's and 70's and remember associating Newman with Virgil Fox and his “Heavy Organ,” (like in “That's real heavy, man,”) and with Joshua Rifkin and his arrangements of Judy Collins albums and the “Baroque Beatles Book” LP. Newman was known then for his 100 meter racing performances, off-beat phrasing and questionable use of ornamentation and notes inégales. This was all in the early days of historically informed performances. We've heard since then umpteen performances of HIP recordings and are clearer about what it should sound like, I hope. 
 
Well, Baroque performance practice may not be a rigid science, but performing Handel's Suite No. 7 in under 10 minutes (with an improvisation to start) and without playing da capo is about as far from HIP as Sviatoslav Richter's 25 minute recorded performance. Scott Ross does it, beautifully, in 19 minutes. Glenn Gould was, by all accounts, a speed demon but had the uncanny ability to keep voices separate and distinct at all tempos. My first thought was, “He forgot to go to the bathroom before coming on stage.” All the movements merged together, with what seemed to be scarcely a nanosecond between the improvisation and the overture and, barely  a deep breath between the others. The final elegant Passacaille passed me by. 

A not unpleasant neo-classical style piece written by Newman himself followed. I couldn't say if that piece was played too fast, thinking that the composer should know best how to play his own work. Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue was tossed off as a bonbon, played without score, quite virtuosic, but sounding like a MIDI file at double speed. With eyelids clamped firmly shut, Newman was living proof that some people really can "do it with their eyes closed."

After the intermission, things got slightly better. Several pieces from François Couperin's 18^th Ordre were played at appropriate tempi and the opening Allemande actually sounded like an Allemande. The final Couperin piece Gaillard-Boiteaux suffered from some missed notes, later explained by Newman as being caused by the keys sticking due to the high humidity and the harpsichord's sensitivity. The program concluded with another technically accurate but blurred and hasty performance of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.

In between pieces, while the harpsichord was being retuned, Newman delivered amusing information on each piece. Seated in the 3^rd row, I felt the 2-manual harpsichord lacked depth, but having moved to the back of the theater for the second half, thanks to a head shaker in the row in front of me, the acoustics of the hall improved the instrument's timbre considerably.


Stan Metzger