Project Update: Koopman and Mathot

On Monday, I attended a performance by Ton Koopman and Tini Mathot (wife and former student) for two harpsichords. The venue was First Baptist Church downtown Portland. It was nice to be back in that sanctuary after a 30-year absence. The event was hosted by Portland Baroque Orchestra and I saw a few notable Western Early Keyboard Association (WEKA) faces there.

The two harpsichords used for the performance were on loan from Byron Will and a client of his (sorry, can't remember her name).

They are nice Flemish two-manual instruments that must be quite heavy (all that marble, you know). I caught the photo below of Mr. Will in his natural environment during intermission.

The show started off with a few comments by Mr. Koopman before they dived right in and started playing.

The program was interesting and I even enjoyed the d'Anglebert played by Ms. Mathot (this helped further diminish my historic bias against early French music) and Mr. Koopman ran through the Bruna on his own.

• Bach: Preludium and Fuga in C Major, BWV 547 for two harpsichords
• Bruna: Tiento sobre la letanía de la Virgen in G Minor
• Mozart: Fuga in C Minor, KV 426 for two harpsichords
• Mozart: Sonata in D, KV 381 for two harpsichords
• d’Anglebert: Deuxième Suite (G Minor) for harpsichord
• Soler: Concierto in D Major for two harpsichords
• Bach: Sonata No. 5 for violin and harpsichord, Monica Huggett, violin; Ton Koopman, harpsichord
• Bach: Five Contrapuncti from “The Art of Fugue,” BWV 1080 for two harpsichords

It was also nice to see a harpcishord/violin duet with Monica Huggett, Concertmaster of Portland Baroque Orchestra, though I would have preferred some nice viola da gamba.

It was an interesting evening. My only concern was centered on the mean age of attendees (rough guess: 60). More on this later.

Until next time...